Terry Mongan - Field Hockey Blog

A 2006 All-Patriot League selection, Terry Mongan enters her senior season on the Mountain Hawks field hockey team with 35 career appearances.  The co-captain started 16 games for Lehigh in 2006, scoring her first career goal along the way.  A native of Malvern, Pennsylvania, Mongan is also a member of Lehigh’s swimming and diving team and has helped lead the Brown and White to a pair of Patriot League Tournament appearances during her career.  Check back soon for her latest update.

Alumni Game Weekend – April 21
This past Saturday was our FH Alumni Game.  We once again played even graduating years versus odd graduating years. Let’s just say…the even years dominated.  Although the score really doesn’t matter in a game like this, it was just nice to see everyone again and get the opportunity to play one more time.  Although I am still a little sore, it is definitely worth it.  Being old has its benefit though too, I got to sub in and out at my own leisure…and I only had to run when I was the youngest one on my side of the field.

It was a great weekend and I can’t wait to do it again next year!  Now it’s time to finally prepare for graduation and really get ready for the last week of classes.

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February 27 -- That was quick…
I can still remember my first day of preseason freshman year.  I can still remember when I sent that first email to Rob to ask if I could swim.  I still remember the first game that I started, and my first swim at Patriots.  All of these seem like they were yesterday, and now I am done.

This past weekend probably couldn’t have been any better seeing as it was my last Patriots, and probably the last time I competitively swim.  I got to be the first leg of the 400 Free Relay, which is my favorite relay.  I got to for one last time see everyone cheering my name, and wishing for me to swim fast.  It was also nice being the senior on the relay with three freshmen.  It was refreshing to see three completely excited teammates standing their taking it all in for the first time, and I couldn’t help but think when that was me.

Now that I’m done I’m starting to workout for the bike-a-thon that I am participating in this summer.  I am looking into doing a triathlon as well.  I know I will find plenty of things to do, including studying and looking for a job.  It is weird though to be sitting around and for Oprah to come on at 4 and for me to know that I have nothing to get to, that I can just hang out.

It was a great run, and I am so excited for the new things to come, but now that I’m done, I know all the hard practices and days I wanted to quit, as well as all the nights I couldn’t go out with my friends and the many other things I missed out on because I had field hockey or swimming, it was all worth it.  I would never have done anything differently either…there are no regrets.

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Closing Time – January 27
It’s been a lot quicker that I have ever remembered before, but I’m already finished with my home swim meets in my Lehigh career, but the day couldn’t have been any better that it was.

Lucky for me, my last meet and senior day was against Bucknell.  Two years ago my younger sister, Meggie, was accepted to Bucknell and decided that she was going to swim for them.  Bucknell is our last home meet which meant that I would get to swim my sister one last time, in my pool.  It was everything that I had hoped it would be.

There were so many people there, including my Parents, my brother Billy, my two youngest sisters, Allie and Julie, my Aunt Leslie, two of my cousins, Ann and CL, and Grandmommy.  Not only did all those people come, they made shirts and everything.

I swam decent, not great, Meggie beat me three last times, and the Lehigh girls went out competitively.  There was so much energy around yesterday’s meet it was really fun.

I’m sad my collegiate athletic career is coming to a close, but it has been so fun.  Three and a half more weeks of training before PATRIOTS, and man is that going to be sweet!

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January 3 – Back after Break
After an exhausting winter break trying to catch up with high school friends and see all of my family, I’m back on campus again. It’s time for the training to start for swimming. It is looking as if it will be challenging but I’m very ready to get myself on track for a great Patriots this year.

But let’s talk about one of the most fun things I did over break. I spent four days in Chicago visiting Kelly Hansen, a former field hockey player, with Kalynn Davies a current Junior. We got to do so many fun things and see so many different things, and of course we did a ton of shopping! It was a blast and I can’t wait to go back to the Windy City again sometime soon.

I also spent a lot of time hanging out with my great high school friends and my family. I got to spend a day in NYC seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway for my mom’s birthday. I also found time to go to Manyunk and Philadelphia. All this while still finding time to workout and keep myself in shape for swimming.

48 days until Patriots…time to really start focusing on getting ready for some excellent swimming. 

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November 12 – Ch-Ch-Ch-Changesss
Two weeks ago, I would have told you that field hockey would never end, that I felt like an old woman, and that I hadn’t competed in a swim race in over a year and a half.  Well all of these things are now false.
 
Two weekends ago was the Patriot League tournament, and it was so nice to be back at the banquet, and not only just back but seeded second.  It was a bit of a shock that we didn’t make it to the championship game, but I had prepared myself. 
 
The game against Lafayette is obviously one that I will never forget.  I gave every last bit of myself out there on the field that day, so I felt that amidst such a sad ending, I was still happy with myself and how my career had to end.  No one wants to end their season on a loss, but many teams do, and unfortunately that loss had to come to Lafayette, but when you play a good game, at least you know you went out strong.
 
So, after the loss to Lafayette I got a weekend off from collegiate athletics, and now am in full swing for swimming.  I had my first meet in over a year and a half this weekend, and man did it feel good.
 
I had forgotten how much I loved racing, and how much I just love swimming.  It is nice to feel the exhilaration of swimming in a competitive race.  So after taking a week to get into the swimming mode and getting a few competitions under my belt, it is time to face Lafayette again, this time in the pool.  I’m getting excited for what is always a very fun meet.

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October 31 – Making memories, and breaking barriers
What a wonderful feeling it is, to have beaten Colgate in overtime…but it is more wonderful being seeded second in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.  Especially since this is the first time since I’ve been on the team that we have been able to play in the two vs. three game.
 
Being seeded second isn’t the only barrier we have broken this past weekend; we also finished our season with over a .500 record in the Patriot League.  Being over .500 was a season goal of ours and it feels good to have been able to have achieved that.
 
Not only did we reach some of our goals, but all of this happened on a great senior day.  There was no better way to play my last game on RJUF (pronounced arrrrr-jufffhhh).  I know Marny, Stacy, Volpe and Christy all feel the same way.  We have been through a lot as a group on this team, we have worked hard, made many great friendships with the people before us, and finishing at home on such a high was awesome.
 
The team is now preparing to go into the tournament this weekend down at American.  We play our first game on Friday against Lafayette.  It is not often that you get a second chance to play against a team that you didn’t really play well against the first time you played, but we have that chance.  We are now going to be able to show Lafayette how we can really play. Let’s go LUFH!
 
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What a weekend! – October 15
What a great weekend!  There were so many milestones made this past weekend, and it doesn’t hurt that our team has been looking pretty good the past two weeks.  This past weekend we beat Holy Cross, who we haven’t beat in 10 years.  Not only that but this is the first time in my almost four years at Lehigh that our record has been a winning record.  Nothing is more exciting than that.

Beating Holy Cross in Worcester also really helps team morale considering we have two on the road this week, one of which is American.  We are sitting mighty pretty right now in the Patriot League and just need to keep giving it our all on the field as a team and we will be looking good.

So, Holy Cross went into overtime, which makes it the second Patriot League game that has gone into overtime this year, and the second one that we have won.  Bucknell was our first Patriot League game and although we had been behind for 63 minutes of the game, we stuck with it and won in OT.  It was very exciting.

Lafayette, our second league game of the season wasn’t so exciting.  We just weren’t the team we had been at many of our other games this season and ended up walking off the field in Easton with a loss, but not just any loss, because it really hurts to lose to Lafayette when you know you could have won.

Our last couple of games have probably been giving our coach some gray hair, but for the fans that show up, we are just trying to keep it exciting.  Don’t worry though, with some tough opponents coming up this week, we will be looking to come out strong from the beginning to show them that we are a force to be reckoned with (and I would love it if my mom got to see a whole game).

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September 23 – Semester is in Full Swing
Back at .500, and ready to keep moving up.  LaSalle was an awesome win.  The team put in so much hard work earlier this week to prepare ourselves for a two game weekend, and we came out strong.  We dominated the game early, but unfortunately let one slide in.   We decided that was enough and were able to keep up our intensity and not allow the Explorers to put in any more.

We are now deep into our season and the team is well-bonded and we’re hungry for some more wins.  We haven’t opened up Patriot League play yet, but are looking forward to Bucknell next Saturday.  We are looking to improve greatly over how we performed last year in Patriot League play and really show the teams in our league that we are a force to be reckoned with.

Off the field we are looking at starting our first 4 o’clock week of the semester already.  I can’t believe it; the semester is just racing by.  My classes are amazing so far which is awesome.  I love all of my marketing classes and professors and my only elective which is my business and professional speaking class, is so fun.  I probably think that because I love standing in front of a group of people and giving a speech.  It is something that has never really frightened me.

With the semester, field hockey and all the organizations in full swing, there seems to be a lot on my plate, but a lot that I love.  This is turning out to be a great fall semester to what looks like should be a great senior year!  Well now it’s off to the field, bring it on ‘Nova!

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September 7 - Two Weeks into it
Two weeks into senior year and things seem to be just getting super busy.  Everything has started now.  Classes are in full swing, which means meetings have started, and have seemed to not stop.

But better than all that class stuff; the field hockey team won our first game of many on Wednesday afternoon against Fairfield. The team came out strong and never let up on the Stags.  We are excited about the win; it was much needed and well deserved.  The team showed some real tenacity and fight against Fairfield which was awesome.

Everything that we have been working on seemed to click on Wednesday, and the talent that this team has started to shine through.  Tomorrow morning the team is going to get up and get ready for our Georgetown game at noon.  Bring it on Hoyas!!!

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August 23 - Preseason Winds Down
It is day 13 of our 14 day preseason and the team is really looking good.  We have now had two scrimmages, the first one against Villanova and the second one against Monmouth both had their ups and downs.

Villanova was great because although we started out a little rusty, we ended up playing great in the second half and we ended up scoring first in the scheduled overtime which would have translated into an overtime win if we would have gotten ourselves into that situation.

In the Monmouth game we came out really strong with two quick goals, and then kept Monmouth out of the cage for all of regulation.  We made a couple of mistakes in overtime which caused us to not score first but end overtime tied.  All in all the scrimmages were a great opportunity for the team to really pull together and see how much talent we possess and how we can take many teams down this year.

This preseason has easily been the most mentally challenging one and has pushed every member of our team to our limits.  I know our team is looking forward to bouncing back from what was a hard year last year and really showing people what we are made of.  We have 23 strong girls on our team and we are really working hard to achieve all of our goals.

As a senior I am really looking forward to leading such a great team this season and I can’t wait to start it off against Temple on Saturday!  All I know is that the Owls better be ready for us!

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