Q: Talk about your first encounter with sports...

A: I remember my dad buying me one of those tiny, fake leather, baseball gloves, you know the kind that has Velcro on the palm and comes with a tennis ball covered in Velcro too. It was sweet! I couldn't miss! My dad must have bought me that the day I could stand up on my own.

Q: What led or motivated you to play?

A: I could never get enough of throwing a ball around since I was young. I was just drawn to sports. As I got older, it became part of who I was.

Q: In your hometown, what was the sports culture like for girls?

A: Well, I grew up on an Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts so the sports culture was pretty minimal compared to what I discovered when I moved to Concord, MA in the fifth grade. Playing sports on the base was centered around our recreational department. We never played kids from other towns or anything like that but it was there that I played on my first team and fell in love with the idea of competing. Looking back on it now, I think it was an extremely beneficial place to grow up as a female athlete. Being young, looking around and seeing moms, dads, men and women alike walking around in fatigues, all looking equally important, I just assumed girls could do anything that boys could do. Sports on the base were there just to give the young kids something to do. We weren't trying to be good enough to make the best 10 and under traveling league or anything like that. It was just fun. At that age I didn't know anything really existed beyond the base. Then when I moved to Concord, MA when I was 10, I found a much more intense sports culture, I fit right in.

Q: How did you get to where you are today and what would you attribute that to?

A: Passion and hard work. Eventually sports just became second nature to me, the challenge became balancing it with everything else in my life.

Q: What has playing sports done for you?

A: At first sports provided me a structure to my life that I needed, I thrived on the idea of getting to the court or the field everyday. It has always been an outlet for me when not much else was going right. I became tougher mentally and physically. I am more focused and driven because of playing sports my whole life. It gave me a place to distinguish myself and be proud of it. Not to mention that sports have provided me some of the best friendships of my life.

Q: At what point did you realize you wanted to go to an Ivy League school?

A: The whole college process was a blur for me. I knew that I had worked hard enough throughout high school to go to a good school and I wanted to go to the best school possible for me. I never had pressure from anyone to go to a certain type of school. When it came down to it I had help from my softball coach to apply to schools where the softball program fit me and help from friends and family to pick schools that fit me in every other sense. Dartmouth is where I ended up and I couldn't be happier. I went through the process the right way, with an open mind, and ended up where I wanted to be.

Q: Is there a certain athlete you admire and why?

A: I can't really pinpoint one athlete because I'm the type of person who will stop the TV on any sporting event and enjoy it for the competition and skill. I admire anyone who plays with heart.

Q: What is the significance of Title IX to you?

A: Recently, Dartmouth was forced to cut our swimming and diving program due to budget cuts, which has since been reinstated. I felt fortunate that I played a sport that was protected by Title IX. As long as our baseball program existed, then we were safe. I think Title IX was a hugely beneficial step for athletics because it encourages participation and equal treatment which in the end means a safe place for girls to find a place to belong.

Q: In your opinion, what has been a shining moment in women's sports?

A: I think there are so many, the creation of the WNBA, the USA Softball Team winning at the Olympics...I don't know, any moment that makes it clear that girls can go somewhere with sports.

Q: What would you tell young girls who are interested in getting to where you are now?

A: Keep at it, work on getting to know yourself and you will end up where you belong. There is no substitute for deep down desire and motivation.