Adrienne O’Donnell ’15

Athlete of the Week: Maggie Godley ’16

women's soccer

Maggie Godley ’16 put away Bowdoin’s first two goals in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Colby and scored again in Tuesday’s win over Tufts. She has struck first for the Polar Bears in each of their last three games.
With the exception of an unassisted, 18-yard chip against Colby, Godley has consistently found herself in a place to score within the team’s aggressive offensive system.
A forward throughout high school and her first two years at Bowdoin, Godley moved to midfield this year but feels comfortable playing upfield on a team that puts an emphasis on getting numbers forward.
“With my background as a forward, I definitely favor attacking,” Godley said, “[Senior captain] Kaley Nelson is a very strong defender. I have faith that if I make an attacking run, she’ll be able to cover me.”
Nelson said that Godley’s technical skill and work ethic are her most admirable qualities.“She is constantly willing to outwork her opponent,” Nelson said. “She is also incredibly versatile, knowing when to give the ball up or take a player on off the dribble.”
Godley said Bowdoin has attempted to get pressure behind the ball this season and move as a unit after forcing turnovers. The team has also tried to stretch the field as much as possible and dominate play with its speedy forwards. This takes possession away from the other team’s midfield.
“We try to vary the way we attack,” Godley said. “But for the most part, I would say we work it through the midfield, move it wide, and try to get it to our forwards. My favorite ball to get is one over the top where I can run to it, dribble and get past someone, taking it down the line to get a cross or a corner out of it.”
Because of the team’s style of play, Godley said she has not found as many scoring opportunities over the course of the season as she has seen recently.
“I prefer to cross,” she said. “On this team, anyone can score. My strength is setting up my teammates.”
Godley has scored four times and recorded three assists this season, tying her for second and third on the team in these categories respectively.
Her increased presence in the offense has added another threat to an already dangerous front line composed of Amanda Kinneston ’15 and captain Kiersten Turner ’16, along with hybrid midfielder Jamie Hofstetter ’16, who has assisted on a pair of Godley’s goals.
Godley started her soccer career as a child because her brother was also playing and her father thought it would be easier if they played the same sport. She made the decision to play in college because she has always enjoyed being on a team.
“Throughout high school and at Bowdoin, it’s always been the highlight of my experiences in school,” she said.
The Rhode Island native had always looked at Division III schools because of their academic rigor and was recruited by Maren Rojas, the predecessor of current Head Coach Brianne Weaver.
“I wanted to be a student first and an athlete second,” Godley said. “Making the decision to go to Bowdoin was more than just a soccer choice. You could get injured your first day and never play again.”
Despite being tied for second place in the conference heading into the NESCAC tournament, the squad has sometimes struggled to score this season. In the 11-team conference, Bowdoin is tied with three other teams for sixth-most goals scored.
The team does not have a single one of the NESCAC’s top scorers. So Godley may have to continue her current hot streak for the team to make a deep postseason run. The Polar Bears will play a rematch against Tufts in tomorrow’s NESCAC quarterfinal on Pickard field.

Athlete of the Week: Stevie Van Siclen ’18

Men's Soccer

Stevie Van Siclen ’18 picked up his fifth and sixth shutouts of the season after denying Middlebury and Amherst any goals in a combined 220 minutes of play. He made three crucial saves in penalty kicks (PKs) to help the Polar Bears defeat Middlebury and came up with two more against Amherst to deliver Bowdoin a 0-0 (5-4) victory and its first NESCAC Championship.
“It’s easy to talk about the penalty kicks as the deciding factor, but in 220 minutes of shutout soccer, I think I saw only four or five shots,” Van Siclen said. “This is easily the best defense I’ve ever played with.”
Still, he enjoys talking about penalty kicks.
“I love penalty kicks. They are the most exciting part of the game for me,” he said. “There’s nothing I’m more confident about in my game than PKs. There’s no pressure on me to make the save. The shooter is supposed to score.”
At least some of Bowdoin’s improvement defensively over the course of the season came from more time spent playing together and fewer injuries than in seasons past.
“Obviously as the season goes on, we have more time to gel as a defensive unit, but I’d include the goaltender in that,” defender Nabil Odulate ’16 said. “We had more time to play together and learn everyone’s style, we learned [Van Siclen’s] style too.”
Van Siclen allowed only eight goals all season, the second lowest in the NESCAC, though he played only 13 games. He stepped in after five games when starter Noah Safian ’17 went down to injury. Although he would only miss two weeks, the team did not allow a goal during that time, prompting Head Coach Scott Wiercinski to keep Van Siclen in the net for the remainder of the season.
It was the first time he had played competitive soccer in a year and a half after tearing his ACL his junior year of high school. He mentioned that many of the larger programs that had been pursuing him for soccer backed away after the injury. Amherst, whose three-year chokehold on the NESCAC championship ended with his save, was one of those programs. Van Siclen mentioned that he keeps a log of every significant athlete achievement he has completed since his injury and remembers all of the important dates. The win over Amherst came 18 months and 20 days after his surgery.
Four of Van Siclen’s allowed goals came against strong teams—Williams and Tufts—in games where he still recorded seven and eight saves respectively. He finished the season second in the NESCAC with a .843 save percentage and fourth with a .64 goals against average.
Van Siclen was the only one of the four boys in his family who continued playing soccer past the age of 10. Instead, his three older brothers and his father all played ice hockey in college, and he will as well, skating for the Polar Bears as soon as the soccer team’s run in the NCAA tournament ends. His performance in the NESCAC tournament assured that he would miss the start of the hockey season.
“I know that Coach [Terry] Meagher is excited to get his hands on him, but we’re pretty excited to hold on to him too,” Coach Wiercinski joked. “Both Coach Meagher and I are supporters of the two-sport athlete. There are really no losers in that situation.”
Van Siclen was actually recruited by Bowdoin’s previous soccer coach, and when Wiercinski took over the program Van Siclen was already well into his own rehabbing process. However, he was determined to get a goaltender in the Class of 2018 because of questions of depth at the position. Due to Assistant Coach Peter Mills’ strong recommendations and votes of confidence from Van Siclen’s high school coaches, he brought the goalkeeper on without having seen him play. Mills had coached his club team against Van Siclen and had seen first-hand the strengths of his game.
At 6’2” and 200 pounds, Van Siclen is able to be a physical presence inside his six-yard box, fielding crosses and winning battles in the air.
“It’s definitely a different style of goalkeeping,” Kiefer Solarte ’16 said. “We don’t have to win every ball in the six. But that being said, it really just changes the way we work around the box.”“He’s stopping shots but he’s also not giving up rebounds,” said Captain Eric Goitia ’15. “He’s doing a good job of controlling shots and not just getting in front of them.”

Athlete of the Week

Field Hockey

Alex Vasile

Orient Staff

November 7, 2014

Adrienne O’Donnell ’15 scored twice and assisted once in Bowdoin’s NESCAC quarterfinal win against Hamilton last Saturday. This leaves the right forward with seven goals and nine assists this season, tying her for fourth highest assist total in the conference and ninth in points.

Until starting as forward this season, O’Donnell had been a midfielder for most of her field hockey career. O’Donnell’s speed allows her to win individual matchups and create space for her teammates.

“Athletically, she’s fit enough to run the midfield,” Coach Nicky Pearson said. “The right midfield has always been an offensive position for us.”

Pearson added that O’Donnell’s passing and defensive skills have developed through her time in the midfield.

“One of the biggest adjustments we’ve seen is her decision-making,” she said. “When players are as fast as she is, they have to make decisions a little bit quicker.”

O’Donnell said that Pearson had mentioned the possibility of a position switch at the end of last year given her similarities to predecessor Katie Riley’s ’14 style of play and her self-described designation as an offensive midfielder. She then spent part of her summer playing forward in pick-up leagues and working on her scoring techniques. She also improved her strength and speed. Captain Colleen Finnerty ’15—the left defender who is often matched against O’Donnell in practices—said that she started the year in the best shape of her career.
Despite lacking the ice hockey background of many of her teammates, O’Donnell may be the team’s fastest player.

Finnerty believes that O’Donnell enjoys a speed advantage over almost every defender she faces.

Since teams as a defensive strategy try to clog the middle of the field, Pearson’s teams have often looked to move the ball out wide. The right side of the field is often the more desirable attacking side because it is both the stick side for the offense and the weak side for the defense. Althought the team tries to balance its attack, both of O’Donnell’s goals came from attacks up the left side. O’Donnell has the ability to carry the ball 50 to 75 yards up the field as a result of the team’s desire to move up and down the field as one unit.

“She gets the ball on her defensive 25 yard line and can beat defenders with a simple pull-right and carry the ball into the circle,” said Rachel Kennedy ’16.

Kennedy has benefited tremendously from O’Donnell’s passing and ability to stretch the field; Kennedy is responsible for 40 percent of the team’s goals, which boasts the second-most prolific offense in the NESCAC.

“If you look at the stats, there are a lot of goals and a lot of assists, which I think is key,” O’Donnell said. “Kimmy [Ganong ’17] and I try to beat our defenders and pop it back in the middle for Rachel [Kennedy].”

“She easily has at least 10 more [assists than she is credited for],” Finnerty said, “She could take the ball 75 yards and not get credit for it. There are so many things happening that affect our team’s success and she’s a part of so many of them.”

Assists in field hockey are only tallied if the eventual goal-scorer shoots immediately after receiving a pass. In terms of record-keeping even one additional move negates the assist.
As the team looks to win another NESCAC championship, O’Donnell is still working on improving her game.

“There are definitely times in practice where she’ll make me look like I’ve never played field hockey before in my life,” Finnerty said. “But she’s always looking for something that will make her better. When I stop her, she’ll ask me questions like ‘What was another move I could have done?’ or ‘How difficult was that to defend?”

Comments are permanently closed.