FAfter seeing her new coach and teammates from the opposing bench, Maschmeyer looks forward to playing for the same team.
“Playing against some of the girls on the team and Coach Stone…got me excited to come to school, knowing I was going to play for her,” she says.
Dempsey and Maschmeyer both believe their international experiences have improved their collegiate game.
“[The international game] is obviously a much different level ,” Dempsey says. “I play wing here and will play wing here this year, so I get to practice playing wing at a higher level when I’m with the U.S. team, and here I feel more confident.”
Stone believes that her players who compete internationally motivate the rest of the team to match their performances.
“Our program has always been about helping to develop [players] to be their best and to get to the next level,” Stone says. “And to have kids that have been in the [national] programs, be it U.S. or Canada, they’re perfect examples. They’re [there] every day; they’re ratcheting up the intensity and competitiveness of practice. You just can’t duplicate that.”
—Staff writer Peter G. Cornick can be reached at pcornick@college.harvard.edu.