Aside from its claims of Canadian superiority, McGill loves to boast about its international flavour. It is a magnet for many foreign students who wish to study in the West, or more specifically, in Canada. However, the international character has typically been confined to the lecture halls and seldom seen on the soccer pitch.

Hannah Rishworth is the only player on the McGill Martlets soccer team who hails from outside North America. Not only does she provide a unique worldly perspective to the already powerful Martlets side, but she also adds something even more valuable and rare: international experience.

While most of her fellow students were enjoying their last moments of summer freedom, Rishworth-a native of Auckland, New Zealand-spent this past August in Moscow representing her country at the FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup. Although the Kiwis did not advance past the initial group stages, the experience of playing for her country and participating in the top-flight competition was a treasured moment in her soccer career, as well as her life.

“FIFA really treats the women like they treat the men in the competition,” Rishworth said. “We stayed in five-star hotels in Moscow and we had police escorts driving us around. It was really cool. But no one really expected us to make the World Cup, and we were an underdog team. We put in a lot of hard work and the whole team stepped up.”

It is this international experience, along with her sense of hard work and attitude of winning that makes Rishworth such an important addition to an already talented Martlets squad. When he recruited her, Head Coach Marc Mounicot quickly noticed Rishworth’s skill and knew she would be a valuable a piece of the Martlet program.

“You always have to recognize the players with international experience,” Mounicot said. “You never see these types of girls at McGill who have played at the World Cup. For me, this experience is priceless.”

New Zealand to CanadaBorn and raised in Auckland, Rishworth spurned New Zealand’s premier sport-rugby-and found her passion on the soccer pitch early in life. Quickly, she developed into a tenacious central defender with a keen ability to make the solid defensive plays.

“My strength is in understanding and reading the game,” Rishworth said. “I’m not a flashy player and I’m not the fastest person out there but I think I’m very consistent and dependable back there. Those are the qualities you need in a defender.”

Although she lived and played soccer in Ottawa earlier in her life, being in Canada at McGill has been a new experience for her. Only here on exchange for a semester, Rishworth will have a short stay in Montreal. Coming out of high school in Auckland, she considered going on exchange to an American university for soccer, although she eventually settled on Canada and the academic-athletic synthesis of the McGill Martlet program, where she could play a pivotal role as one of the team’s central defenders. She clearly picked the right time to join the system – the Martlets have an extremely potent squad this year and their focus is undoubtedly on capturing an elusive national championship.

“I’ve always said that I’d like to see this team [McGill] play my Under-20 team,” Rishworth said. “I think that it would be a really good game. We have a strong side and we’re very similar.”

Down but not outUnfortunately for Rishworth, the sports gods have thrown her a cruel twist of fate. Last week, the star defender severely damaged ligaments in her foot when making a slide tackle during practice. Although no bones were broken, the injury will threaten her season with the Martlets. While she will be fully healed in about three months, because she is only at McGill for a semester, her career here may be over as soon as it began.

“She is a very humble person with great skills and I’m just so upset that she may be out for the majority of the season,” Mounicot said.

Even though the injury has derailed Rishworth’s contribution to McGill, the international flavour and experience she provides will still be crucial intangibles necessary to any championship run. Relegated to cheerleader for the time being, hopefully McGill will have one last chance to see Rishworth’s talent before she hops a plane back to Oceania-in the national championships.