My goggles rest in just the right place on my head. My mouth guard dangles from my mouth as I grab my stick. I stand, surrounded by my teammates and coaches on the sideline. Two of our coaches gave a talk and then it was my turn to speak, “Captains?” I let the senior captain go first but then I added, “Defense, we need to communicate more than we ever have before. They are going to be quick with their cuts and strong on their drives so we need to be ready to slide.” Everyone’s sticks float up to the center of our huddle and I yell, “Hawks on three!” The rest of the team follows, “One, two, three, Hawks!”

I jog out to my position by our goalie. I make sure I’m lined up with our other low defense. I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as my heart beats like a drum in my chest. I observe as the whistle blows and the draw is executed. Oh no, I think, the other team got the ball. It is time for me to lock in and stop this attacker. I notice the high defense ride with her until just outside the 12 meter. She’s beaten, it’s now my job to stop her. I approach her and match her speed to make contact. I push her out, away from the goal. I let up a little since she is out of the eight, but I’m ready for her to attack again. Instead, she passes to the top middie. That’s it, I did my job! 

I quickly switch my thought process to guard cutters and drives. I monitor my attacker, intently, while watching where the ball is. A swift pass is made to the top attacker. Uh oh, I think, she’s their best player. She effortlessly dodges our defense and shoots. Whoosh! Our goalie saved the shot! 

I book it to the side of the field where there’s no one from the other team. I scream our goalie's name to pass it to me, “Abbie! Abbie! Abbie!” She notices and launches the ball at me. I snatch the ball out of the air and start sprinting up the field. My opponent is approaching me, I have to beat her. I use all my might to run as fast as I can. My legs under me are going numb but I don’t care.

I hear my teammates cheer from the sidelines, “Go, Denise, go!” That really set me off. I ran the fastest I ever have then. My opponent is now yards behind me. I see my teammate up the field—wide open—looking for the pass. I send it up to her, straight to her stick. She catches it and our offense begins to run their fast break. 

Out of breath, I jog back to my spot on the other side of the field. That was a beautiful clear and transition, I hope my coaches noticed. 

I had a great first quarter. No one scored on me, I stopped the ball multiple times, and I had a few great clears. The rest of the game went a lot like that. We won, 20-4. Despite the 4 goals that were let in, I played the best I ever had. I was so excited to see what the coaches were going to say. 

We gathered in our huddle and coaches started talking. Here it comes, they’re going to announce the player of the game! My coach begins, “Based on their hard work and stats from this game, the player of the game goes to our attacker, Addi!” I cheered her on, hiding my disappointment. My coach went on about how many goals and assists she had. It was then that I realized defense gets no stats. I stopped my attacker from scoring, but that’s not a stat. I pushed them away from the goal, but you can’t put that into a number. I gave our offense more chances to score—that’s also not a stat. I came to understand that defense does a lot for the team, it just goes unnoticed.