Full Great Women Great Danes Interview Transcript
UAlbany's Great Women Great Danes is a series that will be published during Women's History Month. The series will feature Great Danes, past and present, and celebrate the women of UAlbany.
Q: You are all in your fifth season competing together. What does it mean to each of you that you have been here for that long together?
Maddi Petrella: I don’t know … I feel lucky to have been able to spend five years with y’all.
Morgan Petty: Awww *laughter*
Petrella: I didn’t think that I’d be able to do that so …
Petty: I’m going to start crying out here. *laughter*
Caitlyn Mitros: We always talk about from freshman year till now … on a personal level and from an athletic stance, we’ve each grown so much. We look back at pictures, and we’re like ‘aww, we were so young.’ Ot’s just so crazy to see how much we’ve all grown in every aspect, pretty much.
Wendi Hammond: I think it has a lot to do with our connection with each other on and off the field and how we’ve grown with that connection. [It] has been really cool to see.
Petty: It’s also cool because you come in not expecting the relationships and friendships you’re going to make and then to look back and to realize that we’re still together … they’re the closest people I’ve ever [had, the closest I’ve ever] been with someone else. Maddi said you’re lucky and [I agree], it’s such a special thing to have.
Q: Your first year was the year COVID cancelled everything. Can you bring me through that experience?
Hammond: I thought my world was ending! *laughter*
Petty: Yeah, that was devasting.
Hammond: Like, I didn’t think that we were going to get the year back. So, it felt like ‘wow, I just did all this hard work for it to just be taken away,’ not knowing that we would have the extra year. So, I feel like it was just heart breaking.
Petty: It was sad too because we were all starting to gel together and get to know one another and then you’re separated from each other … and it just stinks because we’re around each other so much that it’s sad when you’re not together anymore.
Mitros: We talk about how traveling is when most … there’s always the new freshmen and that’s when everybody gets so close with each other, and we only went to two tournaments that year … at first it was only two weeks we were going to be gone, so for me, I wasn’t as ‘my world’s ending’ but I did think it was so confusing. Then, it was like ‘nope, you’re being sent home indefinitely’ and then there was so much panic and uncertainty pretty much because we really all started to gel and started to become close with even the seniors and everybody … it was just really confusing …
Petty: Seeing [the seniors] reaction too was so sad. Then we came back the next year and all we wanted to do is just play for them because …
Petrella: Play for Kelly [Barkevich].
Petty: Yeah, play for Kelly because it was so heartbreaking to see.
Q: Now, four years later, you’ve competed in two conference championships, which is something that not a lot of people see. Obviously, two championship losses is not the result that you want, but what does it mean to have come back from that awful end to your freshman year and now you’re here together having seen something that most people don’t see and seeing it twice and possibly seeing it again. What does that mean to you?
Petrella: Third times a charm for me, personally. *laughter*
Hammond: I feel like to me it means that the world doesn’t end after something bad happens. Like you just keep persevering and keep going through it each day and you’ll keep getting the opportunity to work for it.
Mitros: Because in the moment, it can seem like we worked so hard all season and to get to the championship is so rewarding but it can sometimes be overshadowed with losing. It’s a hard day for everybody but, like Wendi said, it just shows you just come back next year and work that much harder …
Petty: And you want it that much more …
Mitros: Yeah.
Petty: I think the last two times, there’s a feeling of … you just don’t want to let it go because you’re just so close.
Q: Speaking of that, of wanting it more or working harder, last season was the first time all of you were honored with America East postseason awards: Morgan - Player of the Year, Morgan and Caitlyn - First Team [All-America East], Maddi - Second Team [All-AE], Morgan, Caitlyn, Wendi – [AE] All-Academic. That’s not something a lot of classes can say. What does it mean to you to have hit that accomplishment together?
Petty: I think it just shows our standard for ourselves. We all we work really hard and we care a lot about this game and about the team and we show up with intent. I think it just shows exactly what our class stands for and it’s another reason of why we keep coming back - we strive to be the best on the field and when you do that and you reach those goals, things like that happen.
Mitros: I think starting out, our freshman year, we all kind of came in and we were kind of forced into…
Petrella: Into starting roles.
Mitros: … Like there wasn’t … we were a big freshman class in general, so we had to start. The coaches put a standard on us like the minute we [arrived at UAlbany] that you have to just work hard and …
Petty: Figure it out.
Mitros: … figure it out. I think every year we’ve just kept that same mentality and grown from it. And, because of our relationships – we’re all so close, we can hold each other accountable and to a [high] standard and can say ‘you need to work harder; you need to push yourself harder’ [when it needs to be said]. Me and Morgan have talks in the outfield all the time about … just everything. So, I think it really started from freshman year and from being put in that position where we just had to take that on and we just really kind of ran with it.
Hammond: I also think we all have the mentality that like ‘you can be better.’ We don’t go to the next year … like for example, Morgan’s been Player of the Year twice, but she’s never gone into the next year thinking that she’s good, that she’s satisfied with it. There is always something to do each practice, each game, each year.
Q: I don’t know if you knew this but all of you have places in the record book. Wendi - you’re actually ranked in quite a few pitching stats … *clapping*
Petrella: No shocker there. *smiles*
Q: … and the ones that you guys aren’t in, you’re getting close. What does it mean that when you graduate, you’re going to be graduating as one of the most successful classes in program history?
Petrella: It’s a nice legacy to leave behind. That and what we can do for our younger classes and sort of the standard that we can keep going throughout the years.
Hammond: I think it also just shows that we couldn’t have done it without the people before us. Kelly [Barkevich], Amanda [Mosall], they set a really good standard when we came in as freshman and our coaches have also held us to a really high standard, like Caitlyn said, starting from freshman year and going on so I think that’s just helped us a lot.
Q: Can you bring me through some of these memories that you’ve made both on and off the field?
Hammond: Well, I can start with Stony Brook…
Petty: Yeah, please start with Stony Brook! *laughter*
Hammond: I threw about 17 illegal pitches against Stony Brook.
Petty: This was also sophomore year.
Hammond: The first inning…
Petrella: It was senior night.
Hammond: So, it’s technically our freshman year because we didn’t have it. I threw like … I don’t even know like 17 …
Petrella: Like, right out of the gate.
Hammond: … illegal pitches and then all of a sudden, Maddi got thrown out, Coach got thrown out and I never threw an illegal pitch again. It was a crazy experience and I was just on the mound as a freshman … like, oh my god, I don’t even have words. I think I blacked out during it like … don’t even remember it.
Petrella: I think everyone blacked out.
Petty: Yeah, we’re in the outfield like ‘what are we … like how are we going to do this.’
Hammond: I think about it all the time.
Mitros: That was a big moment, I think, for our class but also as a team that year. We kind of just came together because, I know for me in the outfield because of how many pitches you *looking at Hammond* were throwing, you *looking at Petrella* were thrown out, coach was not there … we were like ‘we have to make these plays; we have to put it all out there’ … and we did. And then, we swept Stony Brook.
Petty: We swept Stony Brook for the first time.
Petrella: The first time ever.
Mitros: It was just like the best feeling. We were all on cloud nine…
Petty: Yeah, it was the best feeling ever.
Petrella: Yeah, I was sitting with Coach in her office *laughter* just watching y’all and it was just the worst experience for me, personally. *laughter* That was just me, Coach, and my aunt, who had finally been able to come up, and we were all just sitting in the office watching [the game] on … I think it was my phone or someone’s phone.
Hammond: I feel like that game showed Coach really does have our back.
Petty: She does.
Petrella: Yeah.
Petty: 100 percent.
Hammond: That game right there was like ‘that girl has our back.’
Petrella: There was some point where she was like “I can’t watch this; I can’t watch this…” and she would make me give updates.
Petty: I think it goes back to when we were talking about the feeling of being such a successful class and going back to who’s led us there and Coach, she’s really hard on us but she has our back and I think when you feel that and you know that she’s there for us, and the rest of the coaching staff, then you can be successful yourself. When you feel that energy around you, we have it in our class and on the team so with them, you’re more likely to be successful and to feel good about what you’re doing on the field.
Q: And that game specifically, I came in the next fall after you guys won that game … *laughter* people were still talking about it. *laughter*
Petty: It was the best.
Hammond: It was crazy …
Petty: It was crazy!
Hammond: … like it was ACTUALLY crazy.
Mitros: That was probably the craziest game.
Q: And I think it was voted … what was it voted for best upset at the Great Dane Awards?
Mitros: I think so.
Hammond: Something like that.
Petty: Yeah.
Q: I mean, that’s certainly a great memory. Any others you want to follow that up with?
Hammond: All I think of is Coach Joe flying off the bucket. *laughter*
Mitros: Ohhh.
Hammond: Which is a terrible memory to think about.
Petty: Yeah, we bring it up all the time at practice.
*short pause*
Petrella: I don’t know, I kind of go back to that season we almost didn’t make tournament. We sort of had this mid-season complete 180 where we were on like this horrible losing streak and couldn’t break out of it …
Mitros: Wasn’t it like eleven games or something?
Petrella: It was like an eleven- or twelve-game losing streak and then this one point we were on the verge of not making tournament for the first time in … ever. We sort of just … we all came … I don’t want to say like we all came together but…
Hammond: That was the year that they only sent four people to the tournament.
Petrella: Yeah. We just sort of had a complete 180 turn around in the season … I always think back to that whenever we have a really bad season.
Petty: Yeah, you just think of that moment.
Petrella: That it’s possible … because we finished second in conference [that year].
Q: That was also your sophomore year?
All: Mmhmm.
Petrella: Second in conference.
Q: That was a crazy season.
Petty: Yeah. *laughter*
Hammond: It really was. *laughter continues*
Q: What will you bring with you when the season’s over and you’re graduated and moving on?
Petty: I’ll go real quick because I’m so passionate about this. Just having the best of friends …
Petrella: Mmhmm
Petty: I was someone who before I came here … not that I was an outcast in high school, but I just never found my group. And I remember when I came to college … I talked to my mom about this all the time. All I wanted was to find a good group of friends. And it’s so refreshing that I did, and I know we’re already talking about … we got plans of when we’re seeing each other and it’s just so cool to also be surrounded by people that you can just wholeheartedly be yourself [around]. I can totally be around my class, and they can do the same and it’s just … it’s the best feeling to feel like you … I have people that I can literally be the craziest, stupidest, whatever it is person and still know that like they love me for who I am and it’s truly the best feeling.
Hammond: Yeah, just to go off that - having people that you can always lean on for the rest of your life.
Mitros: I feel like we haven’t really talked much about …
Hammond: The end.
Mitros: Yeah *laughter* In years past a lot of people are like ‘oh this is our last …’. I don’t think we were even [thinking about our last first game of the season]. We are … avoiding it almost because it’s going to be such a drastic change but in such a good way too because there’s going to be … we’re going to be able to think back to so many good memories and, like Morgan said, we already have plans to see each other.
Hammond: I feel like we’re avoiding it because it’s not the end for us …
Petty: Yeah.
Hammond: We already have plans to see each other. We’ll be the four that come back for alumni …
Petty: Yeah, we’ll be here.
Hammond: Like, we’ll be the ones that come back. I mean, we’ve already been here for five years together so …
Petrella: What’s another?
Hammond: Why stop now?
Q: Maddi, did you want to add anything?
Petrella: Well, I don’t want to break away from the family fun, but [I’ll remember the] lessons that we’ve learned, like how many times we’ve like come up short and we come back every single year stronger. Being able to look back on that and know that even though we were at our lowest as a team and individually, we were able to keep going and get to that final game at the end of the season.
Petty: For sure.
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