Oct. 6, 2002

By Jay Reddick

Every successful team is made up of many parts.

There are the stars, who find flashy ways to score many of the points or the goals and get a lot of the glory. There are the stoppers, whose specialty is keeping the other team from getting any glory whatsoever.

Then there's the glue. Those players who don't always put up gaudy numbers, who aren't always defending the other team's standout, who just "do things that don't show up in the box score," as the sports cliche goes.

On a field hockey team, midfielders usually provide a lot of glue. And few have done it better or more often the past four years than Heather Aughinbaugh.

Aughinbaugh has managed to score her share of goals - 31 in her career through Sept. 21 - but her biggest contribution to the Deacons on the field has been through ballhandling and passing. As a senior, her role has become more defined: get the ball to the scorers, in position, in the circle, and earn scoring opportunities for Wake Forest. And that, she has done.

"I've had opportunities and had problems finishing, but we've had others step up," Aughinbaugh said. "Our attack has been generating a lot more chances, so our role is to give them the ball inside the circle and let them go. We've also scored on three penalty corners. If I can draw a corner, I'm setting us up for success."

The Pennsylvania native generally is on the point in the Deacons' penalty-corner formation, so she's been a big part of that success as well. And with two goals and two assists through seven games, she's only getting started.

After two consecutive Final Four appearances, Wake Forest has been "the hunted" all season long but has been up to the challenge. The NFHCA coaches' poll released Sept. 24 had the team at No. 3, and both of the top two teams, Maryland and Michigan, were Deacons victims earlier in the season.

As a captain, Aughinbaugh knows the importance of staying focused on the next game and not letting the opinions of others cloud her focus. Even so, when that poll was released three days after the team's 2-1 victory over the Terrapins, she couldn't help but be a little curious.

"I knew we wouldn't go to No. 1, which is fine," she insisted. "Michigan's 1?"

When told Maryland kept the No. 1 position even after its loss, she was incredulous. "I knew we wouldn't get that. It never happens that way. I'd rather not be sitting at No. 1 now - it's all about November."

That respect will have to be earned, and Aughinbaugh thinks the team is poised to earn it.

She admitted she wasn't sure what to expect when the 2002 Deacons began the preseason in early August. With three starters gone and five freshmen in to likely play key roles, she thought it might be an uphill climb to get back to the Final Four again. Those doubts didn't last long.

"I knew we had the ability and the skill, but we're young and we lost three starters," Aughinbaugh said. "I wasn't questioning, but I was curious how it would come out. Then we came out and played well against Iowa (in the season opener), then turned around and beat Michigan (the next day). After that weekend, I have all the confidence in the world."

As it turned out, the talent turnover has helped the team on the field. With more similarly skilled weapons, defenses are more easily spread, allowing for more one-on-one scoring opportunities.

"A lot of teams look to take away the key player, and we have people to step up and take those shots," Aughinbaugh said. "If they take (leading scorer) Kelly Dostal, we'll give it to a freshman on the right or someone on the left. We have so many people with the skill to do it."

The poise and good decision-making that Aughinbaugh exhibits on the field could be found on hockey fields even after she graduates this May. She's mulling the possibility of trying out for the national team this December, to hopefully extend her playing career beyond Wake Forest.

"I have to decide in the next couple of weeks," she said. "I love to play, but if I made it, I would have to move to Virginia Beach (where the national team is based) and I'm not sure if I'm ready to move on with my career, or eat, sleep, breathe hockey for a while longer."

If she decides against the national team, she has the perfect spot picked out for her final field hockey game: Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 24.

The national championship.

"I think we all have the confidence," she said. "We have the skill, we have the ability. Anything can happen in the games."