Alma Fenne never liked to run. At least that’s what her father Rob Fenne thought before he traveled from his home in the Netherlands to watch his daughter score three goals over a two-win weekend in early October.

Former Dutch and current Syracuse teammate Roos Weers called her “pretty lazy” when they played together long before Fenne came to play her lone college season at SU.

During this year, Fenne has improved her fitness to perform and stay on the field consistently.

But Fenne’s chance to play at Syracuse almost never happened. She needed to overcome a host of academic, language and travel issues just to play college field hockey.

“Almost every game we played (in the Netherlands), she was the best player on the field,” Weers said, “… but the fact that she almost had her one chance taken away really triggered her to become better.”

Fenne, a graduate student, has made the most of her first and final year of eligibility to finish the regular season tied for a team-high 33 points for No. 1 Syracuse (16-0, 6-0 Atlantic Coast). The midfielder-turned-forward has improved her fitness and shooting to elevate SU through its gauntlet of a regular season unscathed and toward the upcoming ACC tournament.

“Being a part of this team means so much to me,” Fenne said. “It’s crazy to think it almost didn’t even happen.”

While finishing her bachelor’s degree in the Netherlands, Fenne was set to play field hockey for Boston College for the 2015 season. She wanted to leave the days of training three times a week behind for the promise of training at least five days a week in better facilities.

Following an injury in February, BC needed to recruit a back instead, and Fenne was left to search for a new team in need of her services.

Rob Fenne said that the family thought it would be too late to find a new team and that his daughter was resigned to playing another year for a team in her home country. In a last-ditch effort to play in the U.S., Fenne emailed the top finishers over the 2014 season — including North Carolina, Connecticut and Albany — but Syracuse was the first team to respond.

The enrollment process only further delayed her arrival at the school and ability to train with the team.

Fenne failed a language exam to display her English proficiency in her first attempt and scored too low on her second to be admitted to her preferred area of study, sports marketing. Instead, she had to apply to the media and education graduate program.

“I was disappointed and frustrated,” Fenne said. “The whole point of coming (to Syracuse) was to train and get better and during that time I couldn’t do what I set out to do.”

After her appointment to receive a visa was canceled and then pushed back due to a breach of the international system in June, Fenne trained from home and Skyped into the summer sessions of her masters classes. The forward finally arrived in the United States in mid-July — about two weeks into the six-week academic summer session.

“She had to be here in the summer because otherwise she wouldn’t start getting her legs under her until October,” said Orange head coach Ange Bradley. “With only having one season of eligibility, you want to be able to start that transition to the NCAA game as early as possible.”

Since arriving at Syracuse, Fenne has relentlessly trained and Weers said that the drastic improvement in fitness this season was the final piece Fenne needed.

In the final regular season game, Fenne netted the game-winning goal 8:59 into overtime from 6 yards out on a low shot to give SU a 1-0 win over Duke. The forward only sat for the first minute of overtime after playing the entire 35-minute second half.

“This year is her one chance in America,” Rob Fenne said. “She’s made Syracuse better and is helping the other girls achieve their goal of a national championship, but she’s done so much to improve herself too.”

Published on November 2, 2015 at 9:49 pm

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu