Borg (Gig Harbor, Wash./Peninsula) speaks with experience when discussing the perils of being a keeper on the field. The , Borg has worked (and played) through injuries her entire career, yet she recently moved into the No. 2 spot on EMU鈥檚 career saves list, while also holding a career best .741 save percentage.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even know that EMU held records for goalies with the most saves,鈥� Borg admitted. 聽鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome to have something that shows your hard work. As goalkeeper, you don鈥檛 get recognized a lot.鈥�

In a game against Randolph-Macon on Oct. 13, she gathered 15 saves, making it the sixth consecutive game she finished with double-digit saves and improving her total career number to 387.

Abby Diffenbach holds the women鈥檚 record with 457 saves.

After the women鈥檚 game against Stevenson on Sept. 5, Borg had a wake-up-call from head coach about her potential. She recalls him saying, 鈥淵ou need to show the ODAC that you鈥檙e the best goalkeeper out there.鈥� 聽This fueled her to work even harder.

鈥淎fter that my work ethic increased so much, also because it鈥檚 my last year of playing,鈥� the senior said. 聽鈥淚 don鈥檛 care at all that I鈥檓 injured. 聽I want to show the players that even if I鈥檓 hurting, I鈥檓 still out there working my hardest.”

Borg began her journey playing soccer at the age of three. A versatile player, she has played every position.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e in the goal, you can see the position of every single person,” she said. “You鈥檙e able to observe everyone and know how they play. Growing up, my coaches wanted me to learn every field position, so in the past I would do a lot of the field drills and then they鈥檇 say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e doing shooting drills now, get in the goal.鈥� 聽So I鈥檝e learned all of the positions. 聽A coach can literally put me anywhere they want.鈥�

Borg has also been a thrower for the team, which has added extra stress. Last April, during the ODAC conference meet, the wear and tear became unexpectedly noticeable.

鈥淚 was throwing discus and as I whipped my arm, my hand went completely numb,鈥� she said. 聽鈥淚 was supposed to do really well but I didn’t because it scared me so much. After discus, I went to throw javelin and it happened again.鈥�

Doctors informed Borg she had tennis elbow, an irritation of the tissue connecting the forearm muscle to the elbow, but this may be the least of her worries. She has also had reconstructive surgery on both of her ankles.

鈥淭he ligaments in them are torn,鈥� Borg noted. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e supposed to have three ligaments in your ankles but my right one only has two. Then in my left ankle they鈥檙e really stretched out so there鈥檚 no support. 聽It causes a lot of other problems to happen just because I have no support there. Right now I just tape them.鈥�

Due to these injurie,s Borg has spent much of her time in physical therapy. She appreciates the work of physical therapists so much that she is majoring in .

鈥淚 like the idea of helping people and watching them heal,鈥� she said. 鈥淗aving physical therapists help me through my injuries has made them like family to me. I love the atmosphere: you鈥檙e having fun while also helping someone.鈥�

Borg is soaking in the rest of her goalkeeping career by playing with no regrets. Her mantra is 鈥淲ork hard and understand what your role is. Develop that role and then take pride in it.鈥�

Tsega Mamo, of Ethiopia, explained her duties as “to take blood pressures and also to teach clients about ways to improve their lifestyles, to keep their blood pressure within the range.”

Abigale Diffenbach, from Lancaster, Pa., added that during the hour while clients wait to obtain groceries, “we are answering any questions that the clientele have regarding high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, nutrition and diabetes. We have health education materials for each of these subjects. We are also asking them if they have a health care provider that they see.”

The group — including聽 classmates Alicia Best, Rachel Good and Riccia Robinson — worked with Kelli Mitchell from the Free Dental Clinic and Ashley McWilliams of the Harrisonburg Community Health Center (HCHC).

They were fulfilling a Community Health Nursing class requirement to “provide a health service and teaching to a specific population within the community,” Diffenbach explained.

They contacted Alex DeHavilland, director for Valley Aids Network and a pantry board member, who in turn had enlisted help from dental clinic and HCHC colleagues. DeHavilland found it a good match: “these clinics already serve many of the pantry鈥檚 clients and they operate on a sliding scale.”

Local bus schedules and Spanish interpretation were provided. When Diffenbach, who hopes to work at a hospital in Lancaster, put a Spanish-speaking client in touch with McWilliams from HCHC after learning she had no health provider or insurance, she recalls, “It made me realize that what we were doing was serving a purpose, and that we could actually help some people through our project.”

DeHavilland hopes more such services can be offered.

“For the nursing students this opportunity has been invaluable,” said DeHavilland. “Many of the clients that come to pantry are dealing with serious health issues and other emotional/psychological issues that impact their health.聽 Through their interaction, the nursing students were exposed to issues and situations that are not part of textbooks or classroom learning.”

———–

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg.

Each school was allowed to nominate six deserving student-athletes who were at least a sophomore, not in their first year at the institution, and had a minimum of a 3.2 grade point average. The team includes all levels of college athletics in Virginia.

2010-11 草莓社区 VaSID Academic All-State Team

Monika Burkholder, Women’s Volleyball, Sr., Linville, Va., Art
Abby Diffenbach, Women’s Soccer, Sr., Lancaster, Pa., Nursing
Ryan Eshleman, Men’s Soccer, So., Harrisonburg, Va., Biology (Pre Medicine)/Philosophy & Theology
Sara Lamneck, Women’s Basketball, So., Swoope, Va., Psychology
Vanessa Landis, Field Hockey, Sr., Quakertown, Pa., Biology
Elisa Troyer, Women’s Volleyball, Sr., Harrisonburg, Va., Biochemistry (Pre Medicine)

It’s often one of the primary reasons students decide to attend.

Reflecting on her time at EMU, senior major and star athlete Abby Diffenbach noted that she had seen these community principles of peace and justice exemplified before she even arrived in Harrisonburg.

Growing up in an EMU household

Diffenbach, from Lancaster, Pa., grew up in a household of EMU alumni, including her mother and older brother, and has a deep appreciation for her younger years in the dynamic Lancaster Mennonite culture.

Diffenbach had always felt drawn to an Anabaptist university, but her decision to attend EMU was finalized after learning that she would have an immediate position on the women’s soccer team as a keeper her freshman year.

For any student athlete, where to play is perhaps the most important consideration, but not always for the same reasons.

Athletics as a way to serve

“Athletics is a big representation of a school, and is often the first image that people have of the university,” Diffenbach said.” The idea of servitude extends to the locker and training rooms at EMU. Visiting teams have often remarked about how attentive and professional our training staff is as compared to other colleges they’ve visited.”

Second-year head coach Jason Good, as well as her teammates, have been Diffenbach’s primary athletic inspirations, and are the people to whom she turns when the pressures of schoolwork increase.

“Jason is just an incredible motivator and role model, and the women on the team are all quite close,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate to play with so many great people over the years.”

Record-breaking senior season

During her senior season, Diffenbach broke the EMU career saves record with 457 saves and also took over the records for career playing time and games played.

Serving and leading in nursing, too

The idea of servitude that Abby has recognized in the athletic department matches up well with what she has been taught in the nursing department at EMU.

Having been through hospital stays herself, Diffenbach has been on the other side of the patient-caretaker relationship, and considers compassion, empathy and rapport to be of equal importance alongside the kind medical attention which the patient receives.

She recalls one poignant moment during clinicals:

“I took care of a guy whose appendix burst while he was in jail. We had heard that he was in jail for calling a bomb threat on the very hospital where he was now a patient. This man had a difficult background and it was a real test. However, we are called to higher standards as medical professionals and compassion must be first and foremost. It is still important to establish trust, no matter who the patient might be.”

Making the most of university education

in many practical ways, and Diffenbach serves as an example of a student who has made the most of her time at the university.

During the past four years, she has been involved in organizations on campus that deal with race relations, ethnic issues and .

The interconnectedness between all areas of her involvement at EMU and how it has prepared her for life is something that Diffenbach plans to take back to Lancaster where she hopes to establish her career.

Skills for life, not just career

“EMU has given me the basic skills; not only of nursing, but of how to be a compassionate person. I will take my experience with me back to Lancaster, and I hope to begin my career at Lancaster General Hospital.”

She added: “After enduring a hospital stay from appendicitis, I better understand what is required of a good nurse, and I am confident in the way with which EMU has prepared me for this demanding and important role in society.”

Tim Hartman, originally from Elida, Ohio, is a senior liberal arts major with a emphasis.