Annabel Skubisz believes one of her besties is about to achieve another personal dream.
Northwestern’s keeper, along with the 2023 Cats, was just crowned Big Ten Champions after defeating Rutgers in shootouts on Sunday. While “Scooby” is undoubtedly proud of her squad, she said she’s missing one and is ready to watch her hopefully reach the next dream on her field hockey journey.
The United State Women’s National Field Hockey Team, along with their men’s counterpart, are in Santiago, Chile. They are a few days out from playing their first contest in the 2023 Pan American Games with the goal of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
Maddie Zimmer, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is on the team. Zimmer, a Northwestern red shirt, chose to take her invitation to the USA senior team in an attempt to chase down the chance to represent the red, white, and blue in next year’s summer games.
“She’s one of my closest friends,” Scobby said after defeating Penn State. “So, it’s been, like, a hard year for me not having her. But, people ask me if she ever regrets her choice. This has been her dream since day one.”
Northwestern’s roster has several USA athletes on it, including Scooby, who contributed to the USA Women’s Junior National Field Hockey team’s second-ever gold at the Junior Pan American Games earlier this year in Barbados.
“A lot of the girls on the team dream – if they had the opportunity they’d be there, too,” Scobby said. “This has been Zims dream, and everything that she’s worked for, and I’m so proud of her and excited for her. And, I’m going to be watching all of her games. We’re gonna host watch parties. She’s gonna kill it. We’re gonna qualify.”
Photo: Women’s Pan American Junior Championship 2023 18/04/2023 Wildey, Sir Garfield Sports Complex, St. Michael, Barbados Match: W15 – Argentina v USA (Final) (Photo by WorldSportPics/Rodrigo Jaramillo)
* The USA Women’s National Team were the silver medalists. The United Eagles dropped the championship contest 2-1 to Argentina.
