Former Live Oak field hockey star set to lead UMass into
season-opener today at Stanford
By Jimmy Durkin Staff WRiter
Despite the excitement surrounding her return to the Bay Area, former Live Oak High and current University of Massachusetts field hockey player Gina Sanders knows that her trip home is all business.
“The main focus is field hockey,” Sanders said. “I’m excited, but I can’t make it bigger than it is.”
The senior forward for the Minutewomen, who was named a captain on Wednesday, will lead her team into Stanford on Saturday for the season-opener against the Cardinal at 1pm. UMass continues its Bay Area swing by playing a pair of games at Cal’s Maxwell Family Field. The Minutewomen take on the Golders Bears on Sunday at 1pm and face the University of Pacific on Tuesday at 3pm.
Sanders said there is a lot of energy surrounding the trip to California, the team’s first venture out West in more than a decade.
“Every one on the team is getting excited, we’re counting down the days,” Sanders said via phone earlier this week from Massachusetts.
The team planned to fly into the Bay Area on Thursday and Sanders said the players are ready for the season to get underway.
“I think we have a really strong team,” Sanders said. “We have a lot of variety in our play.”
UMass finished third in the Atlantic-10 Conference last season and advanced to the conference title game. The team was picked to finish third in the coaches poll this season and Sanders and the Minutewomen are hoping to get off to a good start against some unfamiliar opponents.
“We’re ready just to play, we’re ready to show what we’ve got,” Sanders said. “We have no idea how these teams play.”
While the primary purpose of the trip is field hockey, Sanders and her teammates will have a chance to explore the area and is having a tri-tip dinner at the Sanders residence on Saturday evening.
“We’re gonna feed ’em California style,” her father Mike Sanders said.
Mike, a retired Santa Clara County firefighter, also arranged for the San Francisco Fire Department to take the team on a tour around the San Francisco Bay in a fire boat on Monday after practice.
Before taking a red-eye flight home on Wednesday, the team will venture to Oakland catch the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s game.
“They’re really excited to be able to see the Red Sox outside of Fenway Park,” Sanders said.
Watching his daughter play is nothing new for Mike. He travels to all of her games and just flew home from the East Coast, where he made the cross-country drive to drop off his car to have with him throughout the rest of the season.
But he is still enjoying the opportunity to watch his daughter at home and have other family members and friends be able to attend.
“I know my wife is real excited about seeing her baby,” Mike said.
Jimmy Durkin covers sports for South Valley Newspapers. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 203 or
jd*****@sv**********.com
.
