Q&A with Field Hockey's Rachel Sumfest

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Sept. 27, 2012

Rachel Sumfest is among the ACC leaders in points and points-per-game. With eight goals scored already this season, Sumfest has helped make the Cavaliers one of the top-five scoring teams in the nation. The sophomore forward took a few minutes after practice this week to talk about the season and the upcoming top-ten showdown with No. 4 Maryland.

What do you attribute to your recent successes? We’ve been talking a lot about getting in goal-scoring positions. I think that we are building a better awareness of where we are on the field. And with building team chemistry, things are going to happen.

What did you gain from the two road wins last weekend? Boston College was a great game. It was our first ACC game of the year and they are always super fast and really fun to play. Boston University was the best game we played as a team. I think that we had really good 2 v. 1’s on the ball and we were working for each other. I think that it can only go up from here, and it’s a really good moment to go into Maryland.

What will it take for you all to beat Maryland? We have to play together. We played together this weekend, so we need to keep that going and keep the ball rolling into Maryland. We have to play our system and our game and keep pushing the tempo.

How have you grown as a player now that you’ve gotten past your freshman season? Just getting settled. You come into your freshman year and come to preseason, and as soon as you get adjusted to preseason and field hockey, you have school and homework and classes right before practice. Everything just happens so fast. We are already halfway through our season and I feel like I’ve been here for two weeks. I knew what to expect this year and we all know each other, so we are playing so much better. I think last year our team was fairly new, so now it’s a lot more comfortable.

What did working with the U19 team bring to your collegiate playing experience? The pace of the game and just playing against the best people in your age group. You can only get better by playing against the best competition.

What’s your favorite part of the game? I’m a striker, so I love being in the circle and scoring goals.

When did you start playing field hockey? I actually started really late because I played soccer and softball. I never thought I was going to play field hockey, but my seventh grade year, all my friends switched from soccer to field hockey. I was so mad about it, but I went out and played with them and went to a few camps. I joined a club in 10th grade because I went to a camp called East Coast Camp. We started traveling around the country and looking at schools and everything just took off from there.

What do you miss most about home? I miss my mom, I miss her a lot. But it’s really fun that they come up for every game during the season. And we are lucky because we get Thanksgiving break and Christmas break. Other than that, I miss my dogs and the rest of my family of course.

What are you majoring in? I’m thinking about doing a double major. I’ve taken Spanish since sixth grade and I really want to be fluent. Spanish and a liberal arts major, either sociology or English.