This past season was one for the record books! It included another Elite 8 appearance and a day we will never forget, when the program won its first NESCAC Championship! The outpouring of support from alumni and families, coupled with a championship-experienced team from our 2024 run, gave the team the confidence to finish the job and punch their ticket to the NCAA National Tournament for a third straight season. Coming back to campus and being welcomed by so many students, coaches, supporters, and President Garry Jenkins was unforgettable. Here are some pretty remarkable statistics from the season:

• Best start to a season in program history, 9-0
• Most wins in season at 16
• First team to go through NESCAC playoffs without conceding a goal in the conference’s 25-year history!
• Highest National Ranking at 4th in the country

A number of Bobcats were also honored with postseason accolades, including:

• Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg ‘26: NFHCA DIII Senior Team, Third Team All-American, First Team All-Region, First Team All-NESCAC
• Lucy Norris ‘26: NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team
• Haley Dwight ‘27: First Team All-American, First Team All-Region, First Team All-NESCAC, and NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year. 
• Elsa Copeland ‘28: Second Team All-Region, Second Team All-NESCAC
• Ava Donohue ‘28: Second Team All-Region

In addition to these season statistics, our student-athletes held an impressive cumulative 3.69 GPA in the classroom, 10 were awarded NESCAC All-Academic honors, and 19 were awarded NFHCA All-Academic honors. 

The team concluded the season with a special team gathering at President Jenkins’ house and was honored with a mayoral proclamation by the mayor of Lewiston.

We are so proud of all of these accomplishments on and off the field, and want to thank you for supporting our team! We are so grateful to the Bobcat family for paving the way and allowing us to strive for greatness!

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Beyond the NESCAC: How Our Juniors are Growing as Leaders Around the Globe

As we begin the 2026 Winter Semester, the team looks forward to working hard in the classroom, preparing for the upcoming season, and seeing our Seniors walk across the graduation stage. Between now and then, we have a lot of amazing things going on! Including all five of our juniors studying abroad! We want to take a moment to highlight one of our Juniors and Captain, Haley Dwight ’27, who is studying abroad this semester in Lisbon, Portugal. Here is what she has to say:

Hi Alumni, Junior Captain Haley Dwight here. This spring, I will be studying abroad in Lisbon, Portugal, where I am incredibly excited to step into a new language, a new culture, and a whole new way of living day-to-day.

What makes this experience even more meaningful is that I am not the only one doing it. All five of us Juniors are spread across the world this semester (and one teammate is even all the way in Australia!). Even though we are thousands of miles apart, we are still in this together. We will be making memories in our own cities, and hopefully linking up in different corners of Europe along the way.

One of the things I am most excited about is playing for Casuals Hockey, based in Cascais, this Spring. I cannot wait to compete alongside women from all over the world, and honestly, the team has already made me feel so welcomed. The coach has been incredibly supportive and is excited for me to join. It has already made the transition feel much less intimidating.

Leaving campus is definitely bittersweet, especially since it is the Seniors’ final semester and they have been the standard and heartbeat of our team for as long as we have known Bates. But I also know the returners back home will be grinding every day to keep pushing this program forward. And for those of us abroad, the expectation remains the same. We represent Bates and our conference wherever we are. That means staying disciplined, finding ways to train without the same on-campus routine, and holding ourselves accountable even when it seems impossible.

I am excited to settle into a training routine here by trying out different gyms and finding one that allows me to get all of our lifts in. It will not be the same as having our teammates right next to us in the weight room, but I think learning how to create that structure for yourself is part of growing as a student-athlete (and just as a person). I will be honest, I am a little nervous about losing the structure I am used to. But I am also excited for the challenge. I know this experience is going to give me a ton of perspective and make me even more grateful for everything this program has given me. And don’t worry, studying abroad is not taking my mind off our goals. If anything, it is fueling me! Another NESCAC title is always on my mind, and so is the bigger dream of competing for that NCAA title!

I already have trips booked to Interlaken, Switzerland and Seville, Spain, and I am hoping to add Paris, Madrid, Prague, Amsterdam, Budapest, and more as the semester goes on.

That is all I have for now! Thank you all for continuing to support our program, it means more than you know. Believe it or not your support and investment in the program is a big factor as to why we can even take these opportunities in the first place!

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Shaping the Future: Senior Summer Gordon ’26 Prepares for Graduate School Success

Along with our Juniors, our Seniors are busy preparing for graduation as they dive deep into their senior thesis projects! Their paths forward from Bates are starting to take shape. Here’s what Senior, Summer Gordon ‘26 has to say about her next adventures at Tufts:

My name is Summer Gordon, and I am a senior on the team! This summer, I will be starting Tufts University’s Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy program. Although I am sad to be graduating from Bates, I am so excited to begin in June and hope to become a pediatric occupational therapist in the future. Being a part of the Bates field hockey team for the past four years has been the best part of my college experience and has taught me so many lessons that have helped shape who I am today. Bates field hockey has taught me many skills that will be valuable in graduate school and beyond, such as perseverance, adaptability, and how to be a dependable teammate, but most importantly, it has shown me the power of working with a team that feels like a family and what we can achieve when we believe in and push one another. 

We will be sending another newsletter this May, highlighting our senior class, and look forward to sharing those updates. 

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Alumni in the Field: Carolyn King-Robitaille ’07 on Leading, Coaching, and Giving Back

Finally, we hope to highlight some of our amazing alumni in each newsletter. This Winter, we are highlighting a very special Alum and current collegiate field hockey coach, Carolyn King-Robitaille ‘07. Here is what she has to say about her experience as a Bobcat:

What do you currently do? (i.e., job, for fun, volunteer work, etc.)

I am currently the Head Field Hockey Coach and an Assistant Athletic Director at Saint Anselm College. I have the most fun when I am coaching, and I feel so grateful to be able to do that nearly every day. Outside of field hockey, I have two young kids (5 & 3) who keep me very busy. We love to spend time outdoors camping, hiking, taking day trips to the lake or ocean, visiting new places, and exploring all of the beautiful parts of New England. We are a huge sports family and enjoy attending live sporting events and watching our favorite teams (half our household loves the Patriots, and the other half loves the Denver Broncos).

How do you think Bates has shaped where you are right now? 

Bates has had an incredible impact on who I am and where I am now. The college itself challenged me to be a true critical thinker and to broaden my perspective and understanding of things I either thought I already knew or knew nothing about. It opened my eyes to different ways of seeing and considering the world and its people, as well as how to show up in the world as myself. Playing both field hockey and softball had a profound impact on me as well, thanks to my relationships with my teammates and coaches. My coaches and teammates truly walked alongside me during my journey at Bates as I both faltered and flourished. They were an incredible support system during such a formidable time in my life. These are the same people I text in a daily group chat who continue to support, challenge, and show up for me two decades later. I am who I am because of the people I met at Bates and the experiences and opportunities Bates afforded me.

What was your path to where you are now?

I graduated a semester late from Bates, and during that fifth Fall, I helped out with the field hockey team. Prior to this, I never considered coaching as a possible profession. Upon graduating in December, I had an incredible opportunity to work at Reebok’s Global Headquarters, which aligned well with my undergraduate major (Creative Writing) and my interests and aspirations at the time regarding sports. However, after a couple of months, I felt drawn back to Bates and the possibility of coaching. It did help that my future wife was still living in Lewiston at the time. We met during my junior year at the Blue Goose. I moved back to Lewiston and took on roles as assistant field hockey and softball coach and assistant sports information director. This is where that tiny spark and interest in coaching exploded. I knew coaching was my path, and my two years coaching at Bates were the catalyst for where I am now. After Bates, I was a graduate assistant field hockey coach at Cortland State University, where I got my master’s in English Literature. Upon completing that degree, I was lucky enough to get the head coach position at Saint Anselm College, where I have been ever since (14 years).

What is your favorite memory from your time at Bates?

There are so many memories from my time at Bates. Most of my fondest memories involve my teammates and traveling with them, from long field hockey bus rides to VT to softball spring break trips in Florida. We spent so much quality time together and had so much fun together on and off the fields. The opportunity to travel while at Bates holds significant memories for me because I had not traveled much before going to school. My study abroad experience in Cape Town, South Africa, was life-changing, as well as our team trip to the Netherlands (as a player) and our team trip to Argentina (as an assistant coach – Coach Kelly was on that team!). These are once and a lifetime opportunities that I cherish to this day.

What was your favorite Commons food?

I have a few of course. Chicken patty day (usually Sunday) was always a fan favorite for all of us. The chicken taquitos were incredibly underrated and one of my personal favorites. I also was a frequent flyer at the soft serve ice cream machine, and the vegan desserts were always fire. You could not go wrong with any option from Commons.

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