The 2023 Villanova field hockey season produced extreme success for the Wildcats, with an even, 9-9 record and a team total of 49 goals scored. Of those 49 goals, seniors Meghan Mitchell and Sabine de Ruijter contributed 16 and nine, respectively. It is because of both their outstanding athletic ability and demonstration of team leadership that the Villanova field hockey program is fortunate enough to officially welcome Mitchell and de Ruitjer back for a fifth year of eligibility.
In addition to their successes with putting the ball in the net, Mitchell and de Ruitjer exemplify leadership and set a positive example for the rest of the team to follow on and off the field. Both de Ruitjer and Mitchell have made it a priority to leave a lasting impact on the overall team culture.
“For both [Sabine} and I, we’ve had successful careers but it’s also about the team’s success so we want to continue the team’s success,” Mitchell said. “It’s not so much about our individual journeys, but I think both of our goals have been to just leave this program in a better position than we found it four years ago, so I think by taking another year and getting the program to do even better next year is kind of what we want to leave as in a whole team.”
While not an easy decision to make, it is one that will have long term positive effects on the team as a whole.
“For the two of them to be together staying is literally so exciting,” head coach Joanie Milhous said. “We are really excited about the future, we’re really excited about our incomings and having these two as really great leaders and really great players stay is incredible.”
After a record-setting season for Mitchell, she “wasn’t done with field hockey” and “wasn’t done with the team” quite yet. Putting her professional career and other post-graduate plans on hold to continue her field hockey and academic career was an important and inevitable next step.
“I think the main reason I wanted to come back at Villanova is because this place has always been my home, similar to [Sabine],” Mitchell said. “We’ve been through a lot as a program and as a team and this next season is going to be a really exciting time, so I knew I wanted to be a part of that and kind of finish my Villanova career off on a really high note.”
“I figured that doing a Master’s in Finance would be a great add for my professional career and also with the prestigious name that the Villanova Business School has it would be almost dumb to not take that or not do that,” de Ruijter said. “And playing here, I love the team, I love the coaches… I started here at Villanova so I want to finish here at Villanova…so it was honestly a no brainer as soon as Joanie asked me to come back.”
Milhous and all of the players have high expectations for the upcoming season, and those goals are in even closer reach with Mitchell’s and de Ruijter’s names staying on the roster. Both players saw their first Big East tournament appearances of their college careers during their senior season and hope to help in bringing the team back there again this year, possibly even walking away with a conference title.
“We’re really big in taking it one game at a time so we’re gonna first focus on winning the first game, but I think some of the goals for the season are obviously to make the Big East tournament again and really win the Big East tournament is something that we’ve never done before but it’s what we want to do and would be amazing as a team,” Mitchell said.”
“If I think about next year, I don’t just want to be a spectator and watch,” de Ruijter said. “I want to be part of it. We made it to the Big East [championships] for the first time in our four years which was awesome, but I think I can speak for both of us. We’re kind of hungry for more.”
