With the pressures of being role models for the younger players and competing on the diamond, the three Winthrop residents rely on their laidback natures to avoid stress.
"We have an addiction to having fun," Vogt-Lowell said.
The addiction was born during the very first trip that the three took as freshmen. After a somewhat icy opening to their relationship--McKendry and Thoke were unimpressed with each other after they shared a recruiting trip, and Vogt-Lowell was reticent for the first few weeks--things picked up in Florida.
Vogt-Lowell came out of her shell in time to engineer a prank that the three freshmen could pull off.
"We were at team dinner, and we were siting next to each other," Vogt-Lowell said. "We had water guns and were squirting everyone under the table. People couldn't figure out if the table was dripping, drinks were spilling or the roof was leaking. We thought it was hilarious."
Such pranks have become the norm for them. The three have now taken to inventing odd lingos that pervade the team.
"We've got everyone saying 'sideburns', 'snake-skin boots', and 'no girl'," McKendry said. "It's weird, but we love it."
Three Blonde Girls
The name soon wore away, but its suggestion about the homogeneity of their attitudes and appearances has not been lost.
"As freshmen, some might have seen us as cliquish, but we were the only freshmen," Thoke said. "Of course we're going to stick together."
In time, their image as a clique has eroded. The three see themselves as similar in many ways, but also unique.
"We're obviously different people with different interests," Vogt-Lowell said. "I just cannot put down a good book, [but] Chels and Raida are not so excited about reading."
While differences exist, their closeness and similarities cannot be ignored.
After all, was it just coincidence that the three of them showed up at the Eliot House Grille wearing the same hooded sweatshirt?
"We didn't plan it this way," McKendry said. "It happens a bit more than usual, though."