The junior forward on the field hockey team chats about her passion for the sport, the peace it brings her, and pounding holes through her parents’ garage.
Alexa, play field hockey: Junior Alexa Schneck from Reading, Pa., leads the field hockey team in goals (8), assists (5), points (21), shots (42), and shots on goal (28). A forward, she is a two-time Second-Team All-Ivy selection and has started every game of her Penn career. She is currently sixth in the Ivy League in points, seventh in goals, and first in game-winning goals (4).
Finding her passion: Schneck, a Biological Basis of Behavior major, was somewhat of a late-comer to the sport. She was a soccer player and didn’t start playing field hockey until middle school. “Seventh grade was the first time I played competitively and I just fell in love with it,” she says. “I didn’t even play soccer that year because I just knew field hockey was my true passion.” By her freshman year of high school, she was starting varsity.
Always learning: “I think it’s really fun,” Schneck says of field hockey. “You can be very versatile in your stick work, but you want to be quick. Also, I like how the game is very composed and you want to play with a lot of composure. I’m just a very competitive person, too. I just think it’s fun to try and learn different skills all the time because I feel like there’s never really a point where you can master every skill. There’s always something you can learn in the game.”
Scorer’s mindset: Before she switched to forward this season, Schneck played defender as a freshman and midfielder as a sophomore. She says it was a big transition moving from defense to offense. “I think each position has a very different mindset, and I knew going into this season that my expectation was to be a bigger scoring threat on the team, so it definitely was something that was a challenge,” she says, “but one that I was really looking forward to because I never really had that role.”
Sticks and cones: When she has free time, Schneck enjoys practicing on Ellen Vagelos Field, perfecting her shooting and dribbling through the cones. “It’s a nice stress reliever, just to come out here and breathe the fresh air and shoot on cage,” she says. “It’s relieving. My favorite thing is doing it at home. My dad kind of yelled at me for it, but I turned the garage into a field hockey cage, and it’s funny because the drywall is just pounded through.”
Film buff: Like a football player, basketball player, or boxer, Schneck watches film to prepare for opponents.“I actually like watching film,” she says. “Especially before one of our Ivy games, our coaches always share their film to watch, and I really like it. I think it really gives you an insight. You can see who you’re going to mark in that game, and their tendencies. Like if a certain player goes to a specific move, you can be ready for it.”
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