Riley Mallett had two other freshmen with her on the Oswego State field hockey team when she started her career. Four years later, she is the only senior and a captain for the Lakers.

When Mallett started out, she was with forward Kendra Walker and goaltender Mary Mattice. Just a year later, when head coach Heather Moore was brought in, it was only Walker and Mallett.

After Walker left the program before the 2018 season, Mallett was the only remaining member of the class of 2020 for the Lakers.

In her four years, Mallett has only registered one goal but has recorded 13 shots. The goal came in the season-opener of her sophomore year against St. Lawrence University, scoring the only goal for the Lakers in the matchup. She has also played in over 50  career games.

Even though Mallett was never one to put up the points, primarily playing in the midfield or as a defender, she is one of the hardest working players on and off the field, according to Moore.

“Very few people on the team compare to her in terms of leading by example,” Moore said. “She is one of the fastest [players]. She’s the most fit, she’s strong. She works tirelessly to make those things happen.”

Starting as a freshman, Mallett had a strong lineup of captains to look up to. In her first season, Corinne Kimmelman was a senior and captain. Now, she is one of the assistant coaches for Oswego State. Monica Harvey, who is tied for ninth for career assists in program history, was the captain during Mallett’s sophomore year, and Lacey Woite was the captain her junior year.

Mallett said she was able to use what she learned from all of the upperclassmen during her career, especially what she saw in Harvey’s attitude off the field.

“I knew that I wanted to be a player like her, with the way she was offensively and the way she was with the team,” Mallett said. “She really connected with everybody and had a lot of close relationships. I knew I wanted to be like that.”

In that captain role, Moore said Mallett has been able to work around the learning curve that comes with the added responsibility.

“That’s something she’s grown into,” Moore said. “She worked a little bit harder later on to make that more important.”

As the lone senior this year, she has had to make connections with players that are all younger than her. Even though she is the oldest on the team, Mallett said that she has been very close to the team.

“Some of my best friends on the team are younger than me, obviously,” Mallett said. “It doesn’t feel like a difference.”

Now, Mallett has that opportunity to be what Harvey was to her. She is able to teach younger players how to act during a game, in the weight room or even how to be a good teammate.

Sophomore Leah Romanowski, who is also on the midfield with Mallett, has learned a lot from Mallett, even though they have only played together for just under two full seasons.

“On the field, she takes absolute control. She helps everybody out,” Romanowski said. “She doesn’t even necessarily have to say anything, it’s just her body language on the field which helps everybody.”

And even though there are 23 players on the roster – all of which could potentially return to the team next season – they all make sure to include Mallett, despite being older and not a part of their class.

“She doesn’t even let it affect her,” Romanowski said. “As a team, we definitely involve her. We don’t make her feel alone.”

As the season wraps up for Oswego State, with only two games left in the season, so does Mallett’s collegiate career. Romanowski said she hopes the team can pull out a couple wins to help end Mallett’s career with some success.

“I hope she plays well and I hope her team plays well. It’s something to be proud of, those last couple of games,” Moore said. “It would be easy to give up, but I hope they realize they have an amazing opportunity to end the season with the win.”

For Mallett, she said there is not one specific memory that will stick with her after she graduates from Oswego State. She also said that she is “excited but it’s starting to feel real,” with senior day looming on Oct. 26.

“Looking back from when I was a freshman and a sophomore, it’s just a total 360 to finally be in this position that I looked up to when I was that age,” Mallett said. “Whenever we’re together as a team, so many funny things happen. It’s those [little] things I’m going to miss when I graduate.”

Photo by Nicole Hube | The Oswegonian