Maria Armaganian, a three-sport athlete who graduated from Concord High School in 2021 as the field hockey Player of the Year, never planned on slowing down.

At Northeastern University, she built muscle in the weight room, became a force to be reckoned with by playing every minute of games and continued to pile up honors. Her hard work paid off as she reached a new level in the sport after she was selected to represent the U.S. in the Indoor Field Hockey World Cup.

“This is my goal, my dream” said Armaganian. “It’s high-intensity field hockey, it’s for the national team. You’re wearing the flag on your jersey. It’s a really huge accomplishment.”

She is the only player from Concord to ever be selected for the U.S. Women’s National Indoor Field Hockey Team, and the only one from New England on the current team. She had tried out for the outdoor national team many times before but had played indoor in high school with her family, and she decided to give it a shot this year when USA Field Hockey posted tryouts in Pennsylvania.

“No matter where I am, collegiately or national team field hockey, I have the same outlook, if you work hard, things will pay off for you,” she said.

Armaganian, an industrial engineering major and graphic design minor at Northeastern in Boston, started in the midfield for 15 of the Huskies’ 18 field hockey games last season.

“I’ve been trying to stay in the moment of my training and not hyper-focusing on what’s to come,” she said. “Because in my everyday life, I do everything, I’m super proactive and I try get my homework done on the Monday when it’s assigned and then I have the rest of the week to do something else. I feel like I’m the same way with field hockey.”

Armaganian played field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse for the Crimson Tide.

“My mentality when I was trying out for the team was that I could go anywhere and play anywhere,” she said. “I still had the IQ of each position, that it wasn’t going to be detrimental.”

Nicole Armaganian, Maria’s mother and head coach for Concord’s field hockey team, had agreed not to coach Maria in high school, but still taught her at home. The whole family plays, including Maria’s father who is a goalie for an indoor team on the Seacoast.

“It (indoor) is a very different game, and that’s where her (ice) hockey skills really come in. I think that’s where she can showcase her skills a little more, because she has really quick stick skills, and then she has a sense of where to be, she doesn’t just stay in one spot so it’s helpful for her teammates,” said Nicole Armaganian.

Her teammates for the U.S. team are scattered around the country and tryouts are ongoing. The team will come together in December in Pennsylvania to practice once the roster is finalized. Staying in touch and connected with the team while studying, working and playing for Northeastern is a whole new challenge for Maria.

“That’s a huge thing for field hockey in general, is just making sure that you have the connections on and off the court. So making sure that you know who you work well with and keeping the vibes high,” she said.

She’s preparing to represent the country in the World Cup and is excited to play wherever they need her on the team. The tryouts were intense, with a full eight hours of scrimmages and short breaks to evaluate the athletes’ decision-making and how they competed under pressure and fatigued.

“Jun (Kentwell), the head coach there, she was one of the evaluators. She was talking to some of us, and she’s really, really passionate about indoor field hockey and the intensity of it,” Armaganian said. “If you give it your all, 24/7, then only good things will come of it. And I like that coaching perspective.”

The team will travel to Vienna, Austria, for the RohrMax Cup in Jan. 2025 and to Poreč, Croatia, for the FIH Indoor Field Hockey World Cup in February. The U.S. team will face Czechia, Belgium and Croatia in the group stage of the World Cup and hopes to move on to the next stage, although the European competition is strong.

To prepare, she’s working hard with her team, coaches, and athletic trainers at Northeastern who have been supportive of the pursuit of her dream.

“I’ve been trying to keep up cardio, it’s completely different from outdoor and indoor, because outdoors, long-distance running for 60 minutes on end, and indoor’s really short, sprint work stuff,” she said. “We still have team lifts twice a week. I’m pushing the weight that I’m lifting.”

This year she was joined by her sister Camille, a freshman defender on the Northeastern team, who was recovering from a knee injury. By the time tryouts for indoor and outdoor come around next year, they’ll both plan to be there.

“I think she’d be a phenomenal indoor player, but maybe I’m biased, because she’s my sister, but she’s phenomenal at ice hockey, so I can only imagine that she’d be really good,” she said.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.