On Nov. 9, 2019, Ali Roy was celebrating a statement, 6-0 victory over Keene State College in the Little East Conference championship game. In just her sophomore year, it seemed like Roy was looking forward to a bright future as part of a wildly talented Worcester State field hockey squad. And then the world shut down.

How many stories similar to Ali’s have there been in this COVID world? Too many. However, Ali Roy and the Lancers are back in a big way this season, and the graduate student is ready to lead her team back to a championship in what she considers her ‘real’ senior year of field hockey.

Ali grew up just outside of Worcester in Paxton, Mass. and picked up field hockey in the third grade. She would play four years at Wachusett Regional High School, before heading to Worcester State in the fall of 2018, so that she would have the ability to continue to play the game she loves, and chase after a degree in elementary education.

So far, the highlight of her career here has definitely been the 2019 championship campaign. To her, it was a team effort accomplishing that challenge. “Sideline players, starters, it was an amazing feeling,” Roy recollects, before she quickly shifts to the present in assurance that this year “we have the potential”.

It is different now for Roy, as she is the only member of this year’s team that is spending their fifth season in the Lancer blue. Roy spoke upon that unique perspective, saying “It’s definitely a leader role- I’ve been in all their shoes. They’ve been calling me the ‘Grammy’ of the team”. She is doing her best to bring a LEC title back to Worcester and continue the winning culture that was forced to pause back in 2019. She knows that responsibility falls on her as she explains some of the younger players “haven’t had the feeling and the drive that we had to win the championship in 2019. In previous seasons everyone had that”.

As part of what she calls a “great defensive line”, Roy took home last week’s MASCAC Defender of the Week honors, her first such award in her career. Roy and her teammates will be back in action Saturday morning at 11 a.m. at Salem State University against the Vikings.

By Christopher Wright ‘23