By Justin Rushia
Usually, the start of the spring sports season at Plattsburgh State means the end of the hockey season and a brief window for the players to reset after a grueling season on the ice. But this year, three women’s hockey players; Mae Olshansky, Taya Balfour and Emma Mclean traded in their skates for cleats and joined the Cardinals’ women’s lacrosse team.
“I’ve never played lacrosse before,” Olshansky said. “But I’ve always been friends with the girls on the team. In the fall, they were like, ‘Just try it. It’ll be fun.’ So I did, and I’ve stuck with it.”
Despite having no prior experience, Olshansky embraced one of the sport’s most high-pressure positions: goalie.
“I play forward in hockey, so I’m used to being on offense,” Olshansky said. “Being in the complete opposite role now has been such a learning curve, but honestly, it’s just been fun. When I make a save, I feel good.”
For Balfour, a sophomore from Canada, the sport was more familiar, but still distant.
“I started playing in sixth grade and loved it,” she said. “But my high school team was super competitive, and when they found out I’d be missing games for hockey, they basically told me to just stick with that. So I did.”
It wasn’t until she arrived in Plattsburgh and reconnected with lacrosse through a teammate that she realized the door hadn’t fully closed.
“One of my classmates, Lily, told me to talk to Coach Wall,” Balfour said. “I hadn’t played since my first year of high school, but the coaches and my teammates made it so easy to fall back in love with it.”
Being a dual-sport athlete is no small task. Both hockey and lacrosse have demanding practice schedules, off-season lifts and competitions. The balancing act has tested their time management and endurance, especially in the fall when both sports overlap.
“I’ll do sprints for hockey in the morning, then go straight to lacrosse, then have a hockey lift and practice in the evening,” Balfour said. “It’s a lot, but writing out my schedule and relying on support from teammates has made it doable.”
Olshansky agreed, noting that while her coursework is fully online, balancing athletics with her campus job at Plattsburgh Athletics and other responsibilities has been a learning experience.
“I’ve definitely had to get better at managing my time,” she said. “Being a student-athlete for five years has helped a lot with that.”
Coach Kevin Houle, who has led Plattsburgh’s powerhouse hockey program to national prominence, has embraced his athletes doing two sports.
“We’ve kind of had at least one [dual-sport athlete] every year since I’ve been here,” Olshansky said. “It’s after hockey season, so I think he’s all for it — it’s just extra exercise.”
While the hockey program at Plattsburgh is rooted in tradition and championship expectations, the lacrosse program is still finding its footing in just its seventh season.
“With hockey, the culture is built on winning,” Olshansky said. “We don’t lose — that’s the mentality. Lacrosse is different. We’re still building. When we lose, we ask what we can take from it and how we can grow.”
That resilience has created a different kind of team bond.
“With lacrosse, we don’t win as much, so we have to stay together,” Olshansky said. “We have to find fun in it. We have to be supportive.”
Despite the contrasting team cultures, both players emphasized how rewarding the switch has been and how they hope others follow suit.
“I’m hoping this trend continues,” Balfour said. “It’s been amazing going from one group of girls to another and still feeling that same camaraderie. I’ve been preaching to the other hockey girls about how fun lacrosse is.”
