Lauren Powley became the second Mountain Top resident and the first of three Wyoming Seminary graduates to make the U.S. Olympic women’s field hockey team when she played in the 2008 Beijing Games.
Powley made her way on the U.S. Junior National Team while at Wyoming Seminary where she led the Blue Knights to a state title. She then served as co-captain of a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I championship team at the University of Maryland on the way to her Olympics appearance.
Wyoming Seminary won the 2001 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A state title in Powley’s senior season.
Powley was a three-time all-state player in high school and two-time All-American. She was also an all-star on a championship soccer team with that sport still being played in the spring for girls during her high school days.
At Maryland, Powley earned four more All-American honors – third team as a freshman, followed by three straight years as a first-teamer, all three coming while playing on teams that made the Final Four. The center midfielder scored the game-winning goals against Richmond and American in the first two rounds of Maryland’s national championship run through the 2005 NCAA Tournament, earning All-Tournament honors.
Powley played in the 2006 World Cup, the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in which the United States beat Belgium for the title and its spot in the games.
In Beijing, the United States went 1-1-3 to place fourth in its six-team pool, then lost to Spain, 3-2, in the seventh-place game to finish eighth out of 12 teams.
Sara Silvetti from Crestwood was an alternate for the 2008 games.
Diane Madl from Crestwood was the first field hockey Olympian from the Wyoming Valley Conference.
Kelsey Kolojejchick and Kat Sharkey followed Powley as Olympians from Wyoming Seminary.
