Huntington Alum’s Ride Ends at National Finals
Liz Rave has been on a magical ride for the past four years. The Huntington High School Class of 2006 member has earned an avalanche of academic and athletic honors and become one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the Hamilton College women’s lacrosse program.
No. 1 Hamilton was upset last Sunday afternoon by Salisbury College in the NCAA Division III championship game at Gettysburg College’s Clark Field, 7-6. Rave led all scorers in the contest with three goals.
With less than one minute remaining, Rave picked up a ground ball and fired off a shot that was stopped. She then scooped up the rolling ball and dished it off to teammate for a shot that landed in the net just after time expired. It would have been the game-tying goal and forced overtime.
The game marked the close of the former Blue Devil star’s collegiate career and she has a lot to look back on with pride. Over the past four years, Rave started 79 of Hamilton’s 82 games. During this period the team has gone 74-8, including 21-1 this spring.
The Huntington grad is looking forward to a career with a New York City advertising agency. She interned last summer with NBC’s marketing division.
As a Hamilton College senior, Rave scored 46 goals and added six assists. She took 102 shots, scored three game winning goals, picked up 30 ground balls, won 18 draw controls and caused opponents to turn the ball over nine times.
Rave earned outstanding grades at Huntington High School and played soccer, basketball, winter track and lacrosse. (She played basketball as a freshman, before dropping it for winter track.) She never expected, nor wanted, to attend Hamilton College, from which her brother Travis graduated from in 2004, but a visit to the campus as a high school senior changed her mind.
Earlier this month Rave was named Hamilton’s most outstanding senior female athlete. She is fourth in goals all-time for the college with 140 and is regarded as one of the best players in the school’s history.
During an on-line interview this spring that was posted on Hamilton’s website, the Huntington alum participated in a wide-ranging discussion, including if she possessed a “goal-scorer’s mentality.”
“I don’t know if there is such thing as a goal-scorer’s mentality,” she said during the session. “I was actually a defender [my] freshman year, so for me it has been a gradual process. Essentially, when I see an opportunity to score, I take it. However, these opportunities would not appear if my teammates were not there to clear space or pass me the ball. Everything that we do on attack is a team effort. Often the most important moves do not appear on the stat line.”
Rave has won so many academic and lacrosse awards, including All-Region and All-American honors, that it’s impossible to list them all in a short article. In that same on-line interview earlier this spring, she was asked how she manages to excel at both athletics and academics.
“One of the best things about Hamilton is its recognition of being a student-athlete,” she said. “Head coach Patty Kloidt is great about letting us miss practice for academic conflicts, and is well aware of our high workload, especially in weeks during mid-terms and finals. Therefore, I am easily able to do both work and play lacrosse. You simply recognize that practice is at 4:30 and you have to get your work done either before or after it. Playing a sport has the ability to organize one’s life.”
Hamilton and its sports program, proved to be an idyllic match for Rave. “The Division III experience allows for a perfect balance between competitive sports, a great education and a normal college experience,” she said.
Rave made an immediate splash as a freshman at Hamilton, starting 18-of-19 games, scoring nine goals and scooping up 43 ground balls. She scored 36 goals as a sophomore and 49 as a junior.
Hamilton won the national title in 2008, went to the NCAA semi-finals last year and advanced to the national quarterfinals during Rave’s freshman year.
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