Softball: A Senior Class to Remember

A Senior Class to Remember

By Jeff Andriesse

The first thing that pops into Megan Meyer’s mind when she thinks about her fellow seniors on the softball team is how they all have the ability to make her laugh. She has a coach who can do the same – during a game.

“When Coach (Ray Vander May) told me to grab a bat I thought that he was joking,” the senior lefthanded pitcher said of the time on Apr. 17 when Vander May was forced to bat Meyer against Rutgers so as not to have to take her out of the game. “When I walked into the on-deck circle all the fans were so confused and thought that I was kidding around. I am glad I got to the plate one time in my career… it is something that I will always look back on and laugh at.”

Meyer popped up to the catcher (“At least I didn’t strike out,” she says), but can be forgiven for not getting on base. She has been a workhorse who has logged nearly two-thirds of Seton Hall’s 290-plus innings pitched this season, and exactly 0.0009 percent of the team’s 1,103 at-bats. Her ERA (0.95) is almost as low as her batting average. She enters Seton Hall’s doubleheader with Providence with a 21-5 record and a chance to break the career strikeout record (she needs one).

Megan Meyer

Meyer and her fellow seniors Kate DePaul, D’arcy Djakalovic, Katie Flynn, Laura Taylor and Lindsay Trottier will be honored before Saturday’s games as part of Senior Day, and the ceremony will feel odd for a few reasons. For one, all six players have been a fixture at Seton Hall home games for four years and are the most successful class, measured in wins, in school history. In truth, saying goodbye to this group of players on April 30th will be strange to anyone who has watched the team in the past few years and knows that the Pirates still have a long way to go.

Kate DePaul

“Winning the BIG EAST Championship last year and then playing well at NCAA Regionals has given this team the confidence to do it all over again, but get even further,” DePaul said.

The Pirates have already clinched a spot in the four-team BIG EAST Championship, which will take place from May 12-14 in South Bend, Ind. Seton Hall will look to defend the title it won last year in Syracuse, N.Y., which was followed by a 2-2 performance at the NCAA Regional in Waco, Texas.

“Winning the BIG EAST was the most amazing experience I have felt to date,” Taylor said. “The NCAA’s was an eye-opening experience for all of us. I was the first time we were treated like we were on another level and I think we have carried that into this year.”

“I expect our experience from last year help us greatly,” Trottier said. “We will go in (to postseason play) believing and expecting to win the Regional and advance to Super Regionals.”

Seton Hall’s 28-13 record this season is short of its amazing 46-19 mark a year ago, but weather-related cancellations have not helped. Only the Providence doubleheader remains before the BIG EAST tourney, but Seton Hall can point to a strong out-of-conference schedule, plus wins over LSU and Notre Dame and a 3-0 record vs. Hofstra to make its case for an NCAA bid. But this team, and these seniors, are not playing around with any computer ratings – they expect to defend their championship and be the league’s automatic qualifier.

Laura Taylor

“The way our team came together and peaked at just the right time last year was amazing,” Flynn said. “We would love to repeat the performance, but I feel like we are ready to go even farther this year.”

“A lot of people looked at us as underdogs last year, but that was never my view,” Djakalovic said. “This year’s team knows we have a great chance to win the BIG EAST because we’ve seen the greatest competition, played with them, and beaten some of them. It is going to be the senior class’s job in the next few weeks to prepare our younger players mentally for what they can expect at the BIG EAST Tournament and NCAA’s so that they are ready to play.”

The juniors, sophomores and freshman are in good hands and would be wise to listen to this group’s sage advice. All six came to Seton Hall in the fall of 2001 unheralded and with something to prove. Each has taken unique paths, which when they all cross, equal something greater than the sum of their parts.

“It is easy to do something individually,” said first baseman Taylor, who is the Pirates’ all-time leader in home runs and RBI. “But to do something collectively, like winning the BIG EAST… we needed every single person on the team to accomplish that.”

Taylor overcame various injuries to burst on the scene as a freshman and lead the nation in home runs per game. She has earned a Barry Bonds-like level of respect from opposing pitchers and leads the league in walks. Oh yes, she is tops in homers and RBI too. But she’s been doing it for four years - it was clear immediately that Seton Hall had a gem on its hands.

D'arcy Djakalovic

“When I was looking at Seton Hall it was the best of all situations put together. The best softball with the best academics with the best atmosphere,” Taylor said. “I can’t imagine what my four years would have been like without any one of (the other seniors) and I am so glad that I could be a part of it… on and off the field.”

Vander May took a chance on a pair of promising Canadians in Djakalovic and Trottier, and it has paid off in spades. Both have been pillars in the infield at second and third base, respectively. Each has had clutch hit after clutch hit during the team’s magical run over the last two years, and have improved each year offensively and defensively.

“Seton Hall’s softball program had been steadily improving until this class got here,” Djakalovic said. “We were fortunate enough to be here at a time when we could take the program to the next level. Now Seton Hall softball gets a lot of respect and compliments from other teams and we always feel really good knowing all of our time spent working hard has paid off.”

Trottier concurred: “It is a great feeling to be able to bring respect to a program that had little before we arrived. The amount that this team has improved each year since we arrived is incredible, and to be able to see this and be a part of it with five of my closest friends is more than I could have asked for.”

Lindsay Trottier

In DePaul, known to her teammates as “DP” or “Dip”, Seton Hall has a four-year starter who has been moved around to different positions for the good of the team, settling in the outfield this year and starting in left. She has come through with some big hits this year.

“She has the ability to change positions in the field and in the batting order and to learn new skills needed to help her team,” Trottier said. “She never complains about her role, and always puts forth her best effort.”

Flynn, a walk-on, has not played as much as the others, but has received nothing but praise from her classmates. Taylor praised her “heart and love for the game” and called her “completely unselfish.” Trottier admires her perseverance: “She is always ready to help out when needed. She keeps team morale high.”

“I will miss the girls on the team the most,” Flynn said. “They are the reason I have had such an unforgettable college experience and they are the best friends I could have ever hoped to make.”

Finally, there is the indomitable Meyer. Some athletes just have “it”, and the Vermilion, Ohio, native is one of them to say the least. It is no wonder she has taken the ball in both games of most of Seton Hall’s doubleheaders and relished the challenge. 58-12 in the last two seasons and counting, she will graduate as the school’s all-time leader in wins, innings and strikeouts. She also boasts a GPA a hair shy of a 4.0 in the major of biochemistry. Not too shabby for a pitcher whose only Division I scholarship offer was from Seton Hall. Now you have to talk about her in the debate over who is the most valuable single player in the entire nation to their respective team.

Katie Flynn

Vander May is understandably proud of his six seniors: “They have all been dedicated to putting Seton Hall on the map. They have helped us not only on the field, but have placed us among the best academically in the country.”

The six outstanding students have varying plans for after graduation. Meyer is going to the University of Florida to pursue her doctorate in biochemistry. DePaul and Flynn are narrowing down their law school choices. Taylor was invited to the NY/NJ Juggernaut (National Pro Fastpitch League) training camp and has accepted a position at Prudential Finance in Roseland, N.J. Djakalovic will likely stay in New Jersey and look for a job in sales, while Trottier is planning on going for her MBA while looking for a graduate assistant position in a college athletic department.

“This team is successful because we are friends,” Meyer said. “We hang out together and trust one another both on and off the field. We want to win not for ourselves but for our teammates.”

True, Seton Hall’s seniors will say goodbye on Saturday, but in many ways – in the excitement of the coming postseason, in each of their post-graduate plans, in the future of the program they will leave in such outstanding shape – it will be just the beginning of another journey where anything is possible.

Admission is free to Seton Hall’s noon doubleheader on Saturday, Apr. 30, at Ivy Hill Park adjacent to campus.

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