By the time you wake up, they have practiced for close to three hours, spent time in the training room and probably already made it in and out of TDR.
They call Georgetown and the University of Maryland home for practices and games because there are no facilities for them at AU yet. They tear opponents apart in front of sparse crowds of parents and friends. They are riding the wave of a 10 game winning streak, including a victory over the previously third ranked Maryland Terrapins.
They are AU's seventh-ranked Field Hockey team. Not No. 7 on the East Coast or in the region - in the nation. To make that more real, Florida State is the No. 7 football team in the nation and Duke is the preseason men's basketball No. 7.
But I'm not trying to compare field hockey to football or basketball, or even anything. Until last Sunday, I had never seen more than five minutes of field hockey in my entire life and was sleeping just fine at night. I shocked even myself when I agreed to pass on the early NFL games last Sunday in favor of watching field hockey, a sport I don't know a thing about.
I, like hundreds of others, have been asked, almost constantly, by one of the Field Hockey players if I would go to a game. And, like all but about 20 loyal fans - mostly other student-athletes - I cooked up my finest excuses of why I couldn't make it.
I had no clue about what to expect from the game. But as a keen observer of sports, I was able to make some deductions about what the heck was going on.
The first thing I noticed was the enthusiasm of our team compared to the Davidson team that seemed resigned to being victimized by our girls.
The basic team chemistry was obvious from the announcing of the starting lineups, as AU's starters sprinted out to midfield and met one another with high fives, cheers and interesting versions of chest bumps. The fiery energy of the Eagles team made the Davidson girls look like they were slowly recovering from a Saturday night past curfew.
And even though I will never profess to know anything about the strategy of field hockey, I would've needed to be a total dope to not realize AU was dominating the game. Davidson had one scoring opportunity in the first half, compared a dozen for the Eagles.
Caroline Vo, Maureen Daniel, Maggie Hall, Heather Maranzano and the rest of the Eagles defense and midfield spent the wide majority of the game pushed up to midfield and beyond. As a result, the Eagles were able to get the ball on the sticks of the Patriot Leagues' most feared attackers.
The Chilean connection of Javiera Villagra and Camille and Denise Infante wove in and out of the Davidson defense, avoiding mass chaos, hacking sticks and a goalie wearing about three times as much equipment as the NHL requires.
After struggling for 20 minutes to break the scoreless tie, the Eagles opened the floodgates on a relentless struggle in front of the net off a penalty corner. Shortly thereafter, Camille Infante took the ball from midfield, dribbled around at least three defenders, lost the ball for a second, regained it, floated a little closer and then uncorked a wicked shot to the lower left corner of the net.
The Eagles rolled to a 5-0 victory but modestly said it wasn't their best performance. I left the stands a little wiser in my knowledge of the sport and with a profound amount of respect for the awesome team we have at this school.
We go to a school where the athletic teams get about as much support as the Libertarian Party. School spirit here is about as sad as our parties. I will never plead with anyone to go to a road sporting event or even a home one for that matter, because you should only really go if you want to.
But if you have any interest in seeing one of the best teams in the nation play in the next few weeks, take a beautiful afternoon road trip to College Park or Georgetown and check out a field hockey game.
For one thing, it will make about 25 girls really happy. But the major reason is because this team is bringing a lot of pride and respect to AU on an NCAA championship level. That's a pretty cool thing.
