Taylor Geaglone is a freshman forward/midfielder on the University of New Haven’s Field Hockey team, who majors in sports management. She comes into her rookie collegiate year a member of a team with only four returning players from its inaugural year and 14 new freshmen. For her, the opportunity was not one that she could pass upon. In fact, she turned down Division I looks from Northeastern and Vermont to pursue her career at New Haven.

“I knew New Haven was going to be a new program,” says Geaglone, “I wanted that opportunity to play and be a part of this new family and team and be a part of making history with the program.”

For Geaglone, her love for field hockey started in third grade,  with a love of another, similar sport.

“I started playing ice hockey when I was four,” says Geaglone. “That was my main sport and I was constantly playing it. Then one day, I was hanging around and someone from my mom’s high school said I should play field hockey and I started doing camps and that’s when I really caught the bug, like right away. Right when I picked it up I was like, ‘I really like this.’”

The game got serious for Geaglone in fifth grade when she began to hone her skills while beginning to play at the club level outside of school.

She earned a number of awards during her high school career, including the 2017 Hartford Courant player of the year, All-Regional honors her junior and senior years, and Connecticut player of the year her senior season, a goal that she says she had worked for since her sophomore year.

The decision to pursue field hockey in college came during her sophomore year of high school, following an injury that kept her out the majority of her freshman year.

“I knew I loved the sport and that I could make something out of my play in college,” she said.  

Coming into preseason in August, she was excited to get on the field with her new teammates.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I went into the first day, I was really impressed with everyone,” she said. “We all worked really hard and trying be the best they could be. We were all mixing really well and that made me really excited to play once we all got over the first day jitters.”

Geaglone and the Chargers went into their first official season as a full member of the Northeast-10 conference and they took a few games to build chemistry. But in early October, when the team took on sixth-seeded Merrimack, they began to turn for the better.

“We felt like we won that game honestly,” she said. “We worked so hard. We were down four nothing at halftime and that’s happened before and we kind of just dropped our heads, but this time we just didn’t. we all picked each other up and we pushed and played as a team and we shut out a ranked team for an entire half. I don’t even have words to describe because it was just so great to experience that.”

After the game, New Haven earned their first win in program history, and it was Geaglone who sealed the victory as she punched the game-winning goal with just five minutes left in regulation.

Geaglone suffered a setback in her play and was forced to sit out the last few matches before returning Friday against Bentley. However, she chose to look at the positives of watching the game from the sidelines and used the time to help her improve when she steps back on the field.

“I definitely see a lot more and I can help my teammates when I came off the field and answering questions from the players in my position and I saw things I wouldn’t have seen if I was on the field,” said Geaglone.

She said she is excited for what’s ahead over the next three years for herself and for the team. Her goal is to compete for an NE-10 championship and potentially a run at the National Championship which she calls an “exciting opportunity.”