ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Northwestern sophomore forward Olivia Bent-Cole can still vividly picture last season’s NCAA championship shootout loss to North Carolina.
“That’s the last time I want to be in that position,” Bent-Cole told The Daily on Saturday. “I want to win. I want to be holding a trophy at the end of the day.”
One of two freshmen starters on coach Tracey Fuchs’ 2023 squad, Bent-Cole placed her penalty stroke wide left. Moments later, the Tar Heels celebrated their 11th national championship as the Wildcats watched on in despair.
The moment helped fuel her offseason preparation. Bent-Cole thinks of it when in-game adversity strikes. She said — in a strange way — she’s “grateful” it happened.
“I learned a lot from losing,” Bent-Cole said. “That’s an experience I want to have once. Now, I know what the stakes are, what I have to do…Losing gave us some insight on what we have to work on and what we have to do in order to win.”
After earning All-Big Ten First Team honors during a standout freshman campaign, Bent-Cole linked up with another sensational sophomore forward in Ashley Sessa this season.
Even with another high-octane scorer joining the lineup, Bent-Cole has tallied seven goals and three assists in 2024. She said her entire team has significantly improved since its season opener, peaking at a pristine time.
A year and five days removed from NU’s Chapel Hill heartbreaker, Bent-Cole and her teammates have a shot at redemption in Sunday’s national title game against No. 4 Saint Joseph’s at Phyllis Ocker Field.
The forward said the ’Cats can’t leave anything up to chance with a tie at the end of regulation.
“Every single corner we have: we’re gonna make it. Every single opportunity we have in the circle: we have to score,” Bent-Cole said. “That’s something we lacked last year, and we maybe took things for granted. I can guarantee that’s never going to happen again.”
Although Bent-Cole will make her 47th consecutive start and second national championship appearance against the Hawks, she said it still feels as if she stepped on campus as a freshman just yesterday.
For the Philadelphia native, Saint Joseph’s presents a plethora of familiar faces. Bent-Cole competed with and against many Hawks in local club and high school tournaments — ranging from various school fields to Lancaster County’s storied Spooky Nook Sports Complex.
“Honestly, it’s crazy,” Bent-Cole said. “It’s a weird feeling knowing that two years ago I was just competing for club championships. Now, I’m literally playing for a national championship in college. It’s a crazy feeling, but I really like it.”
Just as Bent-Cole looked to former Team USA stars Melissa Gonzalez and Michelle Vitesse as models to emulate during her early days around the sport, the sophomore has swiftly stepped into the national spotlight.
She said she cherishes the opportunity to be a role model for younger players, especially younger athletes of color.
“There’s not many players that look like me out on the field,” Bent-Cole said. “I just hope that when I’m playing, people can feel inspired and feel like they can do anything. It doesn’t matter if no one really looks like you out there — go out and just be confident in yourself and play your game.”
Bent-Cole said representation in athletics is paramount. The forward said she hopes she can inspire young girls to pick up a field hockey stick for the first time.
But as she looks back on her field hockey journey’s beginnings, Bent-Cole said she can’t help but think about her teammates reaching the final steps of their respective collegiate paths.
Veterans like graduate student goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz, graduate student midfielder Lauren Wadas and graduate student defender Katie Jones crafted what Bent-Cole described as an “incredibly welcoming” environment for her when she first joined the program.
Now, she wants to help send the departing seniors and graduate students off with a coveted piece of hardware.
“There are people on this team that have worked their butt off for four, five years,” Bent-Cole said. “If I score, if I assist, or even if I’m part of anything, I’m doing it for them.”
As Bent-Cole looks to help NU etch its name in immortality for the second time in program history Sunday, she’ll encapsulate the new dynastic wave of coach Tracey Fuchs’ program.
A high school junior at Camden Catholic when the ’Cats won their first-ever national title in 2021, Bent-Cole said the team’s current championship aspirations serve as a testament to the group’s leadership and development.
“I was just talking to Wadas about this… when she first got here, it was exciting that they even made the tournament her freshman year,” Bent-Cole said. “Now, it’s a standard. That standard is what makes us so great. That’s what makes us show up to practice every day playing our hardest. It’s cool to win our conference, but we want to be holding that big trophy.”
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