Becky Maz is a freshman from Radnor, Penn. and is a centerfielder on AU’s club softball team. The Eagles’ club softball team went 1-1 in a doubleheader Oct. 26 against the University of Maryland where Maz made a stellar outfield catch. The team is 2-1 overall, their other win coming from a 7-6 victory over Georgetown.
Maz spoke with The Eagle’s Alex Romero this week about softball, her studies at AU and life outside the classroom and the playing field. The club student-athlete of the week is a student in the School of International Studies and D.C. fan.
Eagle: So how has the season progressed so far?
Becky Maz: Right now we are 2-1. We definitely came together a lot as a team over the few months that we’ve been practicing. It’s really interesting because some of the girls are really experienced and others have not even played before. It’s remarkable to see how quickly people are able to develop and how even those who have only been playing for a short amount of time can contribute so much to our team.
E: Tell me about your performance against UMD.
BM: We had a doubleheader that day. I played centerfield for the first game and I led off batting. Playing outfield is usually an underrated position in softball and baseball, but I love it and I think because of that I’ve dedicated so much time to developing my skills as an outfielder. Most people don’t understand how difficult it is. Specifically at the UMD game I had a lot of opportunities to catch long fly balls and also to show how far I can throw. When you’re put in that position it’s all about saving the play at that point because there’s nobody behind you in the outfield. That’s important to me and to the team and I’m really glad that I was able to help out at the UMD game.
E: What are some personal goals you have for this season?
BM: Always to do my best, to work as hard as I possibly can and a home run would be really nice. I’ve never actually hit a home run before. I’ve been close but it’s never actually happened so that’d be one of my biggest goals at this point.
E: What drew you to American University?
BM: Definitely the SIS program. I’ve wanted to study international relations ever since I took a global issues course at my high school. After that I’ve always known that I wanted to do something with international policy. I did Model UN in high school and I’m chairing one of the Model UN conferences they are running this year so I’m really excited to learn about what I’m actually interested in. World politics and economics are two of my favorite classes and I’m really glad that I’m taking them.
E: Do you have a specific focus in SIS?
BM: I want to focus in global economy and then my regional setting would be in the European Union.
E: Aside from school and sports, what do you do for fun at AU?
BM: We have D.C. right here so there’s just so much to do. I’ve been monumenting of course and I’ve done countless other stuff with my friends. I love just going into D.C. and seeing how unique the different areas are. There’s a lot of good food here I’ve realized. There are so many different restaurants and people from all of the world are attracted to this area. [It’s] really cool to go out a couple miles into D.C and realize that you can get food from anywhere and that you can meet people from any cultural background.
E: What has been your most memorable experience in D.C. so far?
BM: The most memorable thing I’ve done so far in D.C. was see the Israeli Minister of Finance speak. That was a cool experience, being able to go to an event that had somebody speaking that was such a public speaker and somebody so famous. And yet it was available to the public, I’ve never experienced that before. Just being able to walk into an embassy or an event where I could see somebody of that much importance speak was so exciting.
