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The Rotunda
Sunday, July 27, 2025

'Obsessed, relentless and united'

Field Hockey

For someone so skilled and confident on the field, Edel Nyland does not crave the limelight. In fact, the junior forward was quick to deflect praise toward her teammates on the Longwood field hockey team, even after her interview was finished.

“Don’t make it all about me,” she laughed, “Everyone’s playing well, the whole team deserves credit.”

“It’s not me scoring goals; I think we’ve had something like eight or nine goal-scorers. We have so many people giving assists,” she added, “I’ve just been lucky enough to put it across the line a few times.”

Despite her modesty, it is difficult to not marvel at her ruthlessness in front of the net, as she sits tied for fourth in the NCAA with 12 goals. Nyland’s prolificacy has been a major factor in one of the best starts in the program’s history, making her The Rotunda’s Student-Athlete of the month for September.

The Tipperary, Ireland native has spent much of her life involved with sports, particularly Hurling, a traditional Irish and Gaelic sport. Nyland said her experiences with Hurling have influenced her playing style in field hockey.

“I’ve played sport my entire life, since I started walking, I started playing sport… I play Irish sports at home, and I played that long before I played field hockey. So, that’s where my field hockey abilities come from,” said Nyland. “We’ve got a sport called Hurling. It’s kind of like Lacrosse-meets-Baseball, and so my style of hockey really incorporates that.”

It’s safe to say that her style has been successful in Farmville as she has already doubled her scoring total of six goals last season. With seven strikes in September alone, Nyland has stayed grounded, crediting the chemistry with her teammates and head coach Iain Byers’ “process.”

“I think I’ve definitely matured as a player. Our team is so special this year,” she said. “In a sportsperson’s career you think back on teams that are special, and this team is definitely one that I’ll look back on as special.”

“The season is so intense. There’s so much squished into such a small space of time, you never really sit back and go ‘Huh, things are going well,' ” said Nyland. “We talk a lot about the process on the team… As soon as we finish a game, we think about the next game.”

Off the field, Nyland has to balance her psychology major and German minor during the season. She also enjoys cooking and hanging out with her teammates off the field as well as Skyping with her family back in Ireland each day.

However, Nyland is all business heading into the final stretch of the season. She is only focused on the team’s results, rather than her scoring tally, as they look to take the MAC title from two-time defending champion Kent State.

“We (the team) picked three words at the beginning of the year; being obsessed, relentless and united, so we keep focusing on that. We had a bad loss against VCU (3-2 overtime loss on Sept. 9), and it really got us down,” said Nyland. “We questioned it, whether we were being obsessed, relentless and united. We weren’t, so we came back and we beat App (Appalachian State) and Liberty, and that was huge for us.”

Although she doesn’t yearn for the spotlight, if Nyland and the Lancers continue to win, it will be tough not to notice them this season.