Hoya Staff Writer Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Head Coach Dave Nolan is convinced that this season’s team is the most talented he has ever fielded. And for the team to turn talent into victory, its two stars – senior midfielders Alexandra Hardy and Chrissy Skogen – will need to do something they have done their entire lives: Rely on each other. Hardy and Skogen’s relationship began as early as the days of youth soccer. Hardy, a graduate student who redshirted her freshman year, and Skogen, a senior, grew up about 25 miles apart from each other, near Long Beach, Calif. But on the soccer field they were not always teammates; for a long time, they were rivals. “[Alexandra’s] team beat us once, maybe once,” Skogen recalls, with a smile. Hardy, meanwhile, maintains that “our club teams played each other and my team won national championships and hers never did.” Even then, both knew that they wanted to eventually come to Georgetown. The allure of the District, coupled with the opportunity to explore an unfamiliar coast, was the main selling point. “I came here in the sixth grade with my mother,” Hardy says. “We came to D.C. for the March for Children with the Marian Wright Edelman Foundation and toured the campus. From then on I always had Georgetown in the back of my mind and when it came down to Georgetown or another school in California, I wanted to try something new.” For Skogen, the path was different. “My family is from the East coast,” she says, “and I’m probably going to live in California after school, so I wanted to try the East coast once.” Defensive Wisdom Even in her fifth year, there are still some small details about the game that are new to Hardy – like her position. Named a captain before the season, Hardy has the added responsibility of anchoring the midfield from the center back position. “I’m, for the first year, in a defensive role,” she says, “and at center back you’re supposed to be directing the whole team, to have that voice of experience to win some games.” Hardy’s five years of experience with Nolan’s strategies give her an edge in motivating her teammates to play better and smarter. Yet, admittedly, sometimes it’s not her experience that she uses to motivate, but rather her voice. “Everybody looks to Ali [Hardy],” Skogen says. “She is one of the most motivational people I know. When things go wrong, everybody looks for her voice and presence on the field.” Before each game, Hardy imparts a few words of wisdom on the team, things she’s learned while trying to balance playing her fifth year of soccer and earning her master’s degree in international affairs. After she finishes her degree, Hardy hopes to live in the Dominican Republic, perfecting her Spanish and intercultural skills. “I want to go somewhere where I can work in the community,” Hardy says. Once the decision to redshirt had been made in the fall of 2002, Hardy’s initial plan was to take a fifth year to finish her undergraduate degree. But the appeal of a master’s degree proved too strong. “I was going to just be a fifth-year senior, make up some of my own courses,” she says. “But then I learned I could start graduate school, which is a great opportunity.” While her academic plans for the extra year may have been up in the air, soccer was never in doubt. “I feel we have a lot of potential this year and I didn’t want to give up on soccer and the team,” Hardy says. “I came back because I know what we can do on the field, and I have the most fun when I’m out there.” And she had a little help, of course. “Chrissy really helped me train this summer, three days a week,” Hardy says. “She would drive 45 minutes to where I live so we could train – especially since maybe I don’t like running so much.” She Makes It Look Easy While Hardy contributes vocal leadership and lock-down defense, Skogen prides herself on a quiet push for excellence and a mastery of the offensive end of the field. Though scoring records catch attention, Hardy believes Skogen’s tireless efforts to improve lead the team in ways she can not. “People don’t know the little things she does,” Hardy says, “She leads everyone by example. And when she is scoring goals she does it in a way that it looks so easy.” Above all, Skogen has focused herself for this season, especially because success in the competitive Big East conference, and a potential ticket to the NCAA tournament, rides on winning close games where weaker teams often lose composure. “We need to be mentally stronger and not let things break down like the end of last season,” Skogen says of a rough 2-6 stretch to finish the 2005 season. “It comes down to composure. If we can get that, we are going to be successful.” Getting that composure and keeping it, as well as preparing physically for this season, has been Skogen’s forte. “Physical fitness is just a mental thing for me. I don’t take no for an answer,” she says. For Skogen, there is one priority this year: getting Georgetown into the NCAA tournament. “Our team has the talent, we just need to focus and get it done,” she says. Thus far, the team has yet to put together a quality win, one in which they play its game for the full 90 minutes. The Hoyas beat Duquesne 2-1 on Sept. 3, but needed an own-goal from the Dukes to do so. To Skogen, that is a dangerous way to start the season. “There aren’t any easy games on our schedule,” she says. “We need to win the games we’re supposed to win, and we need to come away with some of the games we weren’t supposed to win.” Goodbye, Old Friend Skogen has spent her four years climbing the ranks of the Georgetown record books, and she currently stands in striking range of the all-time records for goals and points. But as is the case with Hardy, this will be her last year suiting up as a Hoya. “Soccer has been my passion for my entire life,” Skogen says. “It’s going to be sad when it’s over in two months.” Despite the distance between Southern California and the Dominican Republic, Skogen is sure that it will seem no greater than those 25 miles they traveled as children. “We’ll definitely keep in touch forever,” she says. “She’s one of my closest friends.” Though the two still joke about their club-playing days, it is their days on the same team that they find most memorable. “It’s nice to have someone there from the beginning and to have them at college as well,” Hardy says. “Not everyone gets that.”