Jenkins Sisters Reunited at Harvard

With the Harvard field hockey’s team three-game winning streak in jeopardy on Sunday, the Crimson was saved by an unexpected player: freshman Sydney Jenkins, who scored her third career goal to beat Vermont, 2-1, in overtime.

As Sydney celebrated with her teammates on the field, her sister, Mariel, a junior on the women's lacrosse team, cheered proudly from the stands.

After two years apart, the Jenkins sisters have finally reunited at Harvard.

Since a young age, the sisters have competed together in both lacrosse and field hockey.

In high school, the Jenkins sisters were coined “The Dynamic Duo” and “Double Trouble” because of their unique sister-sister combos.

“I miss playing with her because we would always have sister ‘give-and-goes,’” Sydney said.

Mariel often benefitted from Sydney’s passing prowess.

“Sydney always led the area in assists, and I was pretty high up there in goals, but all of my goals came from Sydney’s assists, so I did little on my own,” Mariel said.

Now playing for the Crimson, the Jenkins girls each chose the sport that best suited their individual strengths.

“Sydney is more of a finesse player,” Mariel explained. “She has really good hands. I’m a little more aggressive, I like to drive to the cage more, and I like more contact.”

Mariel excelled as a lacrosse player at the Princeton Day School, where she scored 118 career goals and was named to the first-team All State in New Jersey.

In her freshman year at Harvard, Mariel started 10 out of the 15 games as a midfielder, scoring three goals and winning seven draws.

Sydney, who was a field hockey all-state prep selection in both 2009 and 2010 and a Junior Olympics pick in 2008, decided to follow Mariel to Cambridge.

“From the second I heard that Sydney was going to Harvard with me, I saw that was going to change my experience completely for the better,” Mariel said.

Mariel wasn’t the only one pleased with Sydney’s decision to come to the Harvard.

“Sydney is a very dynamic player,” junior goalkeeper Cynthia Tassopoulos said. “She can basically go in anywhere and come up with some type of result.”

Sydney has started in four out of the team's nine games so far and was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Sept. 5.

The increased competitiveness of college field hockey has been a welcome change for Sydney who is used to playing with less experienced teammates.

“I just love having teammates who play at a high level, because it makes me better and makes me play better,” Sydney said. “Everyone plays for each other. We do not have an individual player on the team.”

While Sydney is at the height of her freshman campaign, Mariel is preparing for her upcoming lacrosse season, in which she too will be making a debut, after sitting out last season due to a knee injury.

Mariel had a long recovery period and is just now starting to feel stronger and participate in her pre-season drills.

“I want to build off what I did freshman year,” Mariel said. “Act like there wasn’t a gap and continue getting better and try not too much to think that I had an injury and was out last season.”

For the Jenkins sisters, athletics runs in their genes.

Their father played football at Duke, and their younger sister, Andrea, is a junior field hockey and lacrosse player in high school.

“Its always been the three of us,” Sydney said. “Sometimes the little one and the older one gang up on me. When we would play house, I would always be the older brother or the dog, the things that no one wants to be.”

Since they are a little too old for playing house nowadays, Sydney and Mariel have found other ways to spend time with each other.

They often study in the library together, and always take a funny picture of themselves looking extra studious to send to their parents.

“I am really happy because we are just as close here as we are at home,” Mariel said. “It’s really great so far.”