Wolverine Athlete Spotlight: Molly Fishter
4/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 9, 2015
Freshman Molly Fishter talks about adjusting to life as a collegiate student-athlete, the team's focus for its three-game road stand and the benefits of having two older brothers who played collegiate lacrosse.
On the biggest adjustments to life as a collegiate student-athlete ... "The fall was a big adjustment -- we were just thrown into everything and looking back on it now, it all seems like a blur. I think the hardest part on the field was probably the conditioning in the beginning. You don't realize how far your body can go until you push it to another level. Off the field, the biggest adjustment was managing time and our academics, because you're super tired, your body is tired, you're traveling a lot, and you have to keep with your academics, which at Michigan is challenging."
On having sophomores to look up to on the team ... "We were assigned mentors over the summer and that really, really helped. My mentor was Lauren Oberlander and she lives 15 minutes away from me in New Jersey, so we met up and ate pizza and talked and she helped me a lot. Coming in, the sophomores acted more mature because they learned a lot from last season. They realized how much they can help us because they lacked that leadership from older girls last year."
On her biggest improvement on the field ... "I think I've become more aggressive in college because you have to be. Especially with my size, I'm shorter, and when you're going up against taller players or stronger players, you have to make up for it by being aggressive."
On what the team is focusing on for the next three games on the road ... "We've been talking about how we really want to play for each other. We don't have anything to lose, so we're going to put it all out there. And we want to have fun -- against Northwestern we had so much fun on the field -- we came out competitive and all gave it 100 percent. Our goal is to take that energy into the next four games left in the regular season."
On growing up with two brothers that played lacrosse ... "I was always doing gymnastics and soccer and my brothers were very involved in lacrosse. My parents never played lacrosse, but my oldest brother picked it up in eighth grade and my dad started coaching for our town team. My town never had a girls lacrosse team so I had to play for the next town over. For Christmas one year, my parents got me a lacrosse stick and the first thing my brother Jake did was take me outside and we started shooting on the net. Ever since then I've been following in their footsteps."
On getting advice from her brothers who have been collegiate student-athletes ... "I talk to Jake a lot, who is a senior now at Western New England University and he helps me so much. He has the best advice in terms of what role you play on your team and how to make the best of it, and how to adjust academically and manage time. He has really great advice for me."
• Previous Spotlight: Game for Change Edition
