Time is running out.
1-0, No. 1 at the time. Japan, No. 1 at the time, 9th place with 8 minutes left in the game. 12 The U.S. women's national field hockey team was in desperate need of a goal. The task was simple. If they win, they will qualify, if they lose, they will have to compete against another higher-ranked opponent to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although they failed to qualify in 2020, a win would mean the United States would return to the sport's biggest stage.
The United Eagles, as the USWNT is nicknamed, tied the score on a penalty corner with a direct goal from captain Ashley Hoffman. However, they still needed a winning goal to advance.
Shortly after, the USWNT got a corner and Hoffman ran the same play in hopes of scoring again. This time, her shot was blocked and fell in front of rookie forward Abby Tamer. She read the goalie's body language and positioned herself where her ball would most likely bounce. Tamer headed toward the cage, lifted his stick, and fired the ball past three defenders and between the goalie's outstretched legs.
“I can't say my emotions after the qualifying game had anything to do with scoring the goal,” Tamer told the Michigan Daily. “I think it was the pure feeling of qualifying. It was probably one of the best feelings of my life. As a team, we were so connected and united on the field, during the game and after the game. Overcoming depression is something we've been weak at in the past, but to show that some of our team is really happy.”
Teammates on the field flocked to her. And she did it five minutes later when the final buzzer rang, the rest of the team rushed in, and fireworks went off. The players cheered and some shed tears of joy.
Abby Tamer's goal clinched the Olympic berth for the United Eagles.
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Tamer’s story with the USWNT began in January 2023 when she was first called up to senior national team camp. Tamer, her sophomore year on the Michigan State field hockey team at the time, was a rising star who won her second consecutive Big Ten Championship. She skipped school and traveled to United Eagle's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. In June of the same year, Tamer made her first appearance for her national team in a match against New Zealand.
And as Tamer's experience has grown, so has his understanding of what it takes to play the game at the highest level. She has traveled all over the world, from Barbados to India. However, she had difficulty representing the Wolverines and the United States at the same time. Trying to balance both ran the risk of not providing enough of one or the other, but Tamer wanted to try.
“It was honestly really fun to play against the best players in the world,” Tamer said. “When you get beat up by them and chased around you, you think, “This doesn't happen to me anywhere.'' It's weird, but it's fun to be a part of it because you're watching them grow up. , because all of a sudden you're actually on the field with them.”
Although the matches did not overlap, Tamer continued to miss classes to participate in professional tournaments around the world. That spring, when as a member of the U-21 team he won the gold medal at the American Championships and won his MVP of the tournament, Tamer was impressed by the professional environment the national team brings. I realized how much I love you.
But as the University of Michigan's season resumed in the fall, Tamer realized it was no longer possible to do both. Her parents acted as her voice of reason, realistically weighing the pros and cons of what time off from school would mean for their daughter.
Abby's father, Chris Tamer, is a former Wolverine ice hockey player and retired NHL veteran who played 12 years. Her mother, Keely Tamer, is a Michigan State field hockey graduate. Keely coaches Pinnacle and Dexter High School, the club teams she founded. These two teams of hers were played by Abby. Her parents understood the intensity of professional sports and the magnitude of Abby's decisions.
After much deliberation with her parents and the Wolverines' coaches, Abby took the risk. She postponed registering for what would have been her junior season and redshirting, opting to participate in an attempt to bring her national team back to the Olympics for a seventh time.
“It was difficult to put my college career on hold,” Abby said. “I struggled a little bit with that. But everyone around me was really supportive of that decision for me everywhere. So one day I said, 'I can't press pause at this rate. That's right, I thought. I don't think I can concentrate on two things.'' And everyone around me was like, “I don't think it's okay.'' But then they come the next day and say, “Look, this is the Olympics.'' You have to do this. ” ”
At 19 years old, Abby put an end to her college career and moved on to life as a professional athlete. In the fall, she was a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, surrounded by her strong social network. She lived with her friends 16 miles from her hometown, and she attended classes and did homework after practice like everyone else. By summer, she was living alone in a city 1,000 miles away, playing with and against grown women. Some of them were the best players in the world.
That transition wasn't easy.
“They're just at different stages of their lives,” Keeley told the Daily. “…(Abby) has always played with people who are within a year or two of her age. …She has not only had five girls her age, but even living in the same house. She's not just doing it, she's being herself and finding things that she enjoys. That was the change for her. …When people get engaged, get married, buy a house, she certainly I feel younger.”
Over the next six months, Abby grew into her role with the United Eagles, continually being called into camp and logging more minutes. While their USWNT teammates were returning to their newly purchased homes or planning their weddings, their college teammates were drinking coffee together and walking to class. In Charlotte, Abby was adjusting to a life centered solely around field hockey.
Everything Abby had been preparing for over a year culminated in the semi-final match against Japan. Her family was glued to the television at 7 a.m., watching their daughter propel the United States to the Olympics, in awe of her Abby's accomplishments. Within days, Abby's phone was flooded with messages of encouragement from teammates and coaches from her club, high school and Michigan teams.
“We were so happy and so proud of her,” Keeley said. “We go back to when she was considering the option of giving up a year. That was part of her giving up a year to qualify for the Olympics. And , the second part of that was to be part of the roster that would go to the Olympics. …There was a pretty long period of time, and after a few hours I was like, “Did we really do this?!” And that's how I felt about her. (She did it.)
That semi-final match may have crossed one goal off Abby's list, but she's just getting started.
Her choice to leave Michigan paid off. Her risk paid off. While she may have missed living close to her family and being on campus when Michigan's football team won the national championship, Abby had a bigger goal in her mind. there is. She wants to become an Olympian.
But whether Abby's name is on the Olympic roster in July or not, she's already etched her name into U.S. field hockey history.
