Redshirt junior forward Maxine Blackwood has had quite the roller-coaster journey in her collegiate career.
After a strong beginning in her first year, where she started immediately, scoring and assisting on a goal in her fourth collegiate game, she suffered an ACL injury just 10 games into the season. The injury held her out for the rest of her freshman year and forced her to medically redshirt her sophomore year.
“I’ve learned a lot from it honestly,” Blackwood said. “It’s made me into a stronger person today. It’s taught me how to bounce back; it’s taught me how to lean on my teammates for help, lean on my coaches, lean on my athletic trainer for help and honestly it’s made me work 10 times harder than I’ve ever worked in my whole entire life.”
That hard work came to fruition as she came out strong and played all 22 games last season, finishing second on the team in points.
Head coach Tim Santoro had these sentiments about Blackwood’s work ethic as well.
“She’s really strong and a really great presence back to goal,” Santoro said. “But then she’s also one of our better defending forwards, so when you lose the ball she’s our first line of defense and she works her butt off, which attacking players don’t always want to defend, but she does a great job of that.”
This season provides some great opportunity for the Wolfpack as it gets to face Princeton, the team that eliminated it in the NCAA Tournament early on in the season. The Princeton Tigers are currently ranked No. 12 and face the Wolfpack on Sunday, Sept. 2nd. Being from Somerville, New Jersey, Blackwood is excited for the opportunity to play just 30 minutes away from her hometown.
“I’m really looking forward to going to Jersey,” Blackwood said. “I’ve always wanted to play at least some Jersey team. I can’t wait to have a comeback against Princeton in my hometown, and (Tziarra King) in our hometown. I think we’re going to rock it honestly.”
The New Jersey native had some huge games to help the Wolfpack get to 15 wins and reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Against Pittsburgh, Blackwood scored two goals and assisted another to give the Pack a 3-2 victory over the Panthers. Two games later, with ACC Tournament seeding on the line, she scored the only goal of the game to give the Wolfpack a 1-0 victory in extra time against Virginia Tech.
Blackwood brings up that Virginia Tech game when talking about her favorite memories so far.
“Just providing for my team and getting that one goal,” Blackwood said, “the dogpile and the emotions and everyone hugging and cheering; it was just an amazing time.”
Her other favorite memory was the 1-0 victory over then-No. 7-ranked UNC her sophomore year where she didn’t play.
“It was the most exciting thing of my whole entire life,” Blackwood said. “Just to see us and how hard we were working to hold them to zero on their home field, we were all going crazy on the sidelines.”
When Blackwood arrived at NC State, the program was not at its best. Santoro acknowledged that, and was still able to create an environment where he could get top recruits such as Blackwood and make them into the players that they are now.
“It was hard; that class lost 15 games their freshman year and then won 15 their junior year.” Santoro said. “I think that says a lot about them, to commit to a program that could lose that much and then be a part of the process that wins that much, that says a lot about Max and her classmates.”
This impact has been not just on the field but great off the field as well.
“The girls love her, she’s a great personality and adds a lot to our team.” Santoro said.
Her leadership and hard work spreads throughout the team, which is off to a hot 2-0 start.
“I’ve been injured for a long time,” Blackwood said. “And I just want to keep my body healthy and improve my shooting, try to make more opportunities for my teammates, and score more and advance that way.”
