PAULIE'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK -- MERLIJN VAN DER VEGT
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| {The trophy presentation committee reconvened to deliberate and...drink.) |
I GOT AN E-MAIL a couple of weeks ago asking me whatever happened to my Player of the Week designations I used to do here at the site. Truth be told, I just kinda forgot about the award and it took a reader to jolt my memory back to the award. Senility is the only excuse I can offer.
Now that the fall season has sprung back into action and we have scores, events and results to discuss and weigh, I had a bit of indecision on who to give the inaugural 2023 honor to. Anna deBeer certainly was a contender, because of her big weekend in the Cardinal Volleyball Classic, but....I decided to go with Merlijn van der Vegt. She's the goalkeeper on the Field Hockey squad.
The Cards pitched a shutout against #2 Northwestern on Sunday at Northwestern and Merlijn was a major part of helping produce that blanking with nine saves.
van der Vegt is new to the Cardinals this season, coming in as a graduate student. She spent their previous collegiate eligibility at Hofstra. Merlijn also ran cross-country a couple years at Hofstra, in addition to finishing ninth in all-time saves on the turf.... with over 300. Hofstra, of course, is located on Long Island, NY...so the change in venue from Atlantic Ocean to Ohio River was probably pretty intense for van der Vegt.
Merlijn is from Utrecht, The Netherlands originally and aspires to work in a clinic with minority and disadvantaged children when they hit the working world. Them was on the Dutch U18 teams from 2016-18 and majored in psychology at Hofstra. It is noted in the player biography at GoCards that the "they, them, theirs" for her non-binary identity should be applied.. They had two saves in the Cards season opener vs. Northeastern and won the goalkeeping battle in the summer over freshman Emily Young. and sophomore Logan Jancerak. The way Merlijn played against Northwestern, "they" is an apt description, it seemed like their were three goalkeepers out, as busy as they was.
(Somewhere, my sophomore English teacher at UofL is holding her head in agony and filling her copy of my article with red "x's". yellow magic marker strikethroughs and wry, sarcastic comments...lambasting my incorrect pronoun assignments)
I'm going to try and make this a weekly feature.(the award, not praising Merlijn) here at the site and, if you have a nominee for any week, let me know by Tuesday..so I can consider your case before my Wednesday article.
The Louisville Field Hockey squad is riding high on that win and van der Vegt's performance was incredible. We've already started referring to them as "Merlijn the Magician".
Peace be with you this Wednesday. It is National lemon juice today, so sent a squirt my way...
paulie
That's a heck of a goaltending effort
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