On October 6, the Williston varsity field hockey team was acting differently. They weren’t smiling. They weren’t dancing. Lined up in five rows in the Sabina Cain Family Athletic Center lobby, they were laser-focused, tenacity in every hip stretch, every vertical jump, every straight leg skip—every exercise meant to sharpen defensive footwork skills. The whistle blew constantly. Not until a relay race involving jumping over a two-foot bar while passing a tennis ball to the next competitor in line did their guard come down a little. Players on the winning team laughed and congratulated each other as they sat. For less than a minute. Then they were in the weight room, doing two-rep front squats at a perceived rate of exertion of nine. They finished those. They slid more weight on the bar. They continued.

If they were more serious than usual, it’s because, quite suddenly, there’s more on the line this week. For one, their annual Pink Game was coming up on Friday, October 9, a showdown at home against Class B rival Berkshire. Senior captain Brooke Cherewatti called it “the game of our season.”

As in years past, the game would feature a fundraiser in honor of breast cancer awareness; money raised during fundraising events throughout the week, including bracelets sold on gameday by team parents, would go to the Elise Olmann-Kahle 2025 Memorial Fund, set up to honor the legacy of Ollmann-Kahle ’25, a six-year senior who passed away in October 2024 after a years-long battle with cancer. The team ended up raising $2,158 for the event.

“The game means a lot to us,” said junior co-captain Ava Carr. “A lot us have personal family experiences with cancer. Just playing it—I know it sounds cliché, but it’s something bigger than us.”

And if the rush of playing the Pink Game wasn’t enough, the team is also playing inspired field hockey, spurred on by ending a 40-year losing streak to a perennial powerhouse. With coaches Alex Tancrell-Fontaine and Sarah Sawyer at the helm, the girls are cooking with gas—and they intend to keep that fire lit.

On Sept. 30 and in just their second game of the season, the Wildcats posted a 2-1 win against Hotchkiss—the first win for Williston since 1986. For many of the players, especially junior Keira Gould, it was a moment they had an intense personal investment in. Last year, Gould, who plays center back, scored in overtime against Hotchkiss, but the goal was called off.

“Oh my God, it was the best day of my life,” Gould said of this year’s momentous victory.

Senior Riley Stocker felt the same, calling it “kind of surreal.”

In addition to giving the team something to celebrate, the Hotchkiss game also, as Cherewatti explained, gave the team a boost of motivation.

“It gave us energy,” Cherewatti said. “It showed us we can do hard things.”

“It was really important to us,” added Carr.

For Athletic Director Jade Morris, ending the 40-year drought is an amazing accomplishment.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” Morris said. “There’s a determination about this group that reminds me of our 2024 team that beat Middlesex in overtime to win the NEPSAC championship.”

Morris credits much of the team’s success to the group’s grit, and the community-building efforts of its coaches.

“They have an incredible ability to motivate individual players while bringing them together around something bigger than themselves,” she said. “There’s a genuine commitment to team success over individual accomplishments.”

That culture, she elaborated, “is reflected in the leadership of our seniors, the resilience of the group, and the confidence of younger players like [9^th grader] Maizy Lonergan, who stepped up when their team needs them.”

It’s clear, however, in watching the team prep and listening to its supporters, that no single player hoards the spotlight. It’s a group effort, always.

“It’s how hard they compete for one another how much they believe in each other and their refusal to back down from a challenge,” Morris said.

As Gould came out of the weightroom, she summed up the team’s single-minded determination, how this week has been more serious for them than usual.

“We have fun and we’re goofy,” she said, “but when we need to, we lock in.”

The game against Berkshire ended in a 1-1 tie.