Katherine Bowie went to St. Mary’s School in Augusta then started at Cony before moving on to Kents Hill. For college, she wanted to attend a small Catholic school and ended up at Siena College, where she plays field hockey.
“Private school is very important to me,” Bowie said. “Playing Division I field hockey on top of that is just incredible. I just feel very fortunate to be able to play at this level.”
Five games into Bowie’s senior season, the Saints are 1-53 in her career at Siena, including an 0-5 record this season. The one win was last Nov. 1 at Sacred Heart, and was Siena’s first win on the road since 2006.
Bowie admits the losing has gotten to her at times, but she’s more than confident in the team’s abilities.
“The girls on my team, they’re not going to give up,” she said. “I’m not going to give up. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a hard worker, and I love proving people wrong. So people can still expect great things from this team this year. We’re not done.”
“She brings a level of intensity that just raises the (play) of our team on a daily basis,” Siena coach Kara Zappone said. “She’s very dedicated to making our team goals a reality.”
Along the same theme, Bowie said it “never crossed my mind at all” to transfer to another school.
“I’ve had the best four years of my life, actually,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s just been an all-around perfect fit, honestly, in all aspects of my life.”
Beginning with her sophomore year, Bowie has started 35 of last Siena’s 36 games. Zappone said Bowie plays “a little bit of everywhere in the midfield,” and describes her as a player who makes an impact on offense and defense.
The Saints have been outscored 25-4 this season, and Bowie does not have any goals or assists. That’s something she’d like to change soon. She’d also like her parents to see her win a college game — they missed the game against Sacred Heart.
“I want to get my stats up,” Bowie said. “I want to make the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) tournament, because I know we can. We’re going to be there.”
Bowie is majoring in religious studies. After college, she’d like to work in private education, as well as become a coach.
“Teaching kids things gives me a satisfying feeling,” she said. “Even when I’ll tell my teammates something and it works, it just makes me feel good about myself.”
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The University of Maine at Farmington field hockey team has three parts to its schedule: There’s the easier part, the extremely difficult part, and the conference part.
The Beavers recently completed the easy part. The game against the University of Southern Maine certainly wasn’t easy — USM won 2-0 — but over the past two Sundays UMF posted victories by scores of 10-1 over Wheelock and 11-0 over Daniel Webster.
“Certainly some of the games I wish would have been more competitive,” UMF coach Cyndi Pratt said, “but we just tried to focus on executing and getting ourselves better.”
UMF will definitely get tougher competition in its next two games. The Beavers are at Colby on Wednesday night and face defending national champion Bowdoin next Thursday. Colby defeated UMF by a 4-0 score last season.
“The competition’s going to get a little tougher — to say the least,” Pratt said. “What I tell the players (is) you have to play against better competition to make yourself better. I think we’ve got to challenge ourselves for the conference schedule — which is the games that really count.”
The Beavers were picked to finish third out of six teams in the North Atlantic Conference’s preseason coaches’ poll. Senior Chelsea Morley (three goals, four assists) and freshman Carly Raymond (five goals) lead UMF with 10 points apiece. Mt. View grad Delainey Kein and Messalonskee grad Mara Balboni have each scored three goals.
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Carrabec grad Brooklynne Lewis got her college sports career off to an amazing start as a freshman on the women’s soccer team at UMaine-Machias.
In the first game of the season, the Clippers lost 3-1 to St. Thomas of Canada, with Lewis scoring her team’s only goal. Twelve days later, UMaine-Machias was on the road at Southern Maine Community College. Again, Lewis scored all of the goals for the Clippers. This time, her goal in the second overtime gave her a hat trick and UMaine-Machias a 3-2 victory.
The next day, UMaine-Machias faced Central Maine Community College. Lewis scored two goals in the first half, including the game-winner, then handed out two assists in the second half.
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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