Carolyn Malloy filled out her “I Am Here registration” two days before the beginning of fall semester, but long before that she made the Colonial Athletic Association aware of her arrival at Northeastern as the field hockey team started Aug. 30.
A freshman on the team, Malloy was recognized as one of the conference’s top two rookies for the week ending Aug. 30, sharing Rookie of the Week honors with Hofstra forward Genna Kovar to earn her Huntington News Player of the Week honors.
Malloy scored her first collegiate goal Aug. 30, helping the Huskies earn a 3-0 victory in their 2008 season opener against Northwestern.
Against Providence Sept. 4, Malloy scored her second goal in as many games, and she remains the Huskies’ leading scorer with four goals in four games.
Malloy played high school field hockey for Salem High School in New Hampshire, where she set a school record registering 30 goals (70 points) during her senior season. Her play in high school earned her a place on the 2007 National Field Hockey Association All-America Team, New Hampshire Field Hockey Coaches Association Field Hockey Player of the Year, New Hampshire Union Leader All-State pick in 2006 and 2007 and Player of the Year in 2007.
“I’m looking to make an impact on the team, and I wouldn’t mind scoring a lot of goals here, too,” Malloy said.
Salem is about 33 miles from Boston, but Cheryl Murtagh, head coach of the Northeastern field hockey team, had to travel across the country to discover just how much talent the freshman had.
“I saw her out in California at the national field hockey festival, and I just loved her athleticism, her aggressiveness,” Murtagh said. “She has the ability to score, to put balls in the goal. It’s very hard to teach that.”
Malloy said her inexperience can sometimes cut into her natural scoring ability, though.
“Sometimes coaches want a high forward. I’m playing really high up the field (for Murtagh), so I’ve got to adjust,” Malloy said. “Sometimes I find myself creeping back to play more defensively.”
However, Malloy’s natural skill and work ethic should allow her to make the changes necessary to flourish under Murtagh’s tutelage.
“She has the athleticism and the kind of raw talent and aggressiveness that you like, and I think her field hockey skills are just going to get better and better from playing on astro-turf every day,” Murtagh said. “One of the things that impressed me most about Carolyn was when I go up to her to help her out, she’ll just say ‘just tell me what you want me to do.’ How can you not like having someone like that on your team?”
When she’s not learning more about field hockey, Malloy will be educating herself on a myriad of subjects. She is currently enrolled in the School of General Studies, and her fall schedule includes classes ranging from criminal justice to sociology.
“I’m going to take a few different classes and see what I really want to do. But I definitely want to do a co-op in the future when I know what I want to do, and studying abroad would be cool,” Malloy said. “Maybe I would do that in my fifth year because I wouldn’t have time until then, really.”
– Jared Sugerman,
News Staff
