Foxcroft’s Rayfield signs to play field hockey at Division II power Saint Anselm

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Ava Rayfield arrived at Foxcroft Academy four years ago as an already talented field hockey player. But her continuing growth in confidence and technique has landed the Ponies’ senior forward the chance to continue her playing career with the 2019 NCAA Division II runner-up beginning this fall.

Rayfield formalized that opportunity Monday, signing a National Letter of Intent to accept a partial scholarship to study and play field hockey at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“I always knew I wanted to go out of state in the first place and I had followed Saint Anselm for a while knowing that they went to the Division II national championship,” Rayfield, who also considered attending the University of Vermont, said.

“I had watched them on film to see how they played and I really was interested so I reached out to their coach and have fallen in love with the school since then.”

Saint Anselm did not play its schedule this past fall as the Northeast-10 Conference suspended play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But a year earlier coach Carolyn King-Robitaille’s Hawks finished 20-3 after capturing both their conference’s regular-season title and postseason tournament championship. Saint Anselm was ranked third nationally then before bowing to West Chester (Pennsylvania) 2-1 in the NCAA Division II national championship match.

It’s with an eye toward competing at that level that Rayfield has focused most of her individual training during her senior year at Foxcroft.

“Coming from a Class C school I’ve thought about that a lot, so I’ve really been trying to get myself in the best shape I can be,” said Rayfield, who also pitches for Foxcroft’s softball team. “I’m in the gym all the time, I’ve been working on my stick skills and I’ve been trying to watch a lot of their film to see what level I should be at.

“I’m thinking the physical strength and pace of the game are going to be two big things there, but also that it’s not as much of a one-person game, it’s the whole team that has to put in the complete effort.”

Rayfield, the daughter of Bill and Audra Rayfield of Dover-Foxcroft, is a four-year varsity field hockey player at Foxcroft who emerged during her sophomore season with the Ponies.

“What’s funny is when Ava was a freshman we knew her ability, but she was just so shy or maybe was intimidated by the upperclassmen and [assistant] coach [Morgan} Rublee and I would try to push her,” Foxcroft coach Stephanie Smith said. “We’d say, ‘We know you can do this’ and ‘You’re holding back,’ and after that first year she really came forward.

“She loves the sport.”

Foxcroft reached the Class B North semifinals during Rayfield’s sophomore year, then went undefeated in 2019 to capture the Class C North state championship, the Ponies’ first state title in field hockey since 2013 and fourth in the program’s history.

Rayfield was named to the Class C all-state team for her contributions to that effort.

Foxcroft’s 2020 schedule was abbreviated and regionalized due to the continuing pandemic, and the Ponies finished 7-1-2.

“It was pretty sad at the beginning knowing we were all so hopeful and excited to really try to win another one this year,” Rayfield said. “But I think for me this season was just focusing on what we were able to have and not dwelling on what we had lost.”

Foxcroft went 50-7-2 overall during Rayfield’s high school career.

“Ava has worked very hard on her skills and her fitness,” Smith said. “She’s done a lot on her own above and beyond what we do in our regular practices, to a point where she could fake people and they’d go one way and she’d zoom right by the other way.

“She’s been a great team leader who inspires her teammates. You couldn’t ask for a better person — kind and just a joy to be around.”