July 1, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
As captains on the back line of defense, communication proved essential for Vanderbilt teammates and recent graduates Alex Duckenfield and Maggie Forker.
But often, between the longtime friends, words aren’t needed to get the message across.
“We just kind of give each other a look,” Duckenfield said.
Added Forker: “I feel like I know what she’s doing 12 steps before she does it.”
Duckenfield and Forker are an inseparable pair, especially on the lacrosse field.
For the past 12 years, the Philadelphia natives spent every year together with lacrosse sticks in hand. They started in fifth grade on the same rec league team, which subsequently carried over to the club circuit during their high school years. And this spring they wrapped up four seasons at Vanderbilt.
“This is the longest relationship I’ve been in,” Duckenfield said, laughing. “Twelve years. Longer than any boyfriend. We can’t escape each other. We’ll never be out of each other’s lives.”
Alex’s mother, Jenny Duckenfield remembers them becoming “instant friends.”
Forker and Duckenfield remember it a little differently.
“I was shy. Maggie was the outgoing one, so it took time to build up,” Duckenfield said. “(Our parents) wanted us to get together because they saw we were serious about lacrosse and we had potential. They just wanted us to stick together because we sort of had the same goals.”
Jenny served as their coach of Haven Youth Lacrosse from fifth grade through eighth grade. She drove the pair to practices, to games up and down the East Coast. A bond grew out of lacrosse and field hockey.
Forker took the draws, passed it up to Alex, who would feed it back or take it to the net herself. Jenny remembers Forker, then just 4-foot-8-inches, as deceivingly strong despite her short stature. As for her only daughter, Alex was skinny, “all elbows, knees and legs,” but a tremendous passer.
And where one was, the other wasn’t far behind.
“They would set each other up,” recalls Jenny, who has spent 18 years coaching lacrosse and is currently the head coach of nationally ranked Agnes Irwin High School in Philadelphia. “Alex was a defensive playmaker. Maggie was a force in the midfield. Running the midfield, taking the draw and scoring. They know each other’s game so well now because they’ve been playing together so long. They really know how to make each other look good.”
They went to separate high schools, but played on the same club team, Ultimate Goal Lacrosse Club. Allison Fisher, now the head coach at Lafayette, coached the team all four years. They traveled the country together, playing in tournaments in Colorado and California.
As their decorated prep careers  “They were leaders in their programs,” Jenny said  wound down they began looking at colleges. Recruited by some of the same schools, they actually went to the same campus visit to Vanderbilt during their junior year of high school.
When they returned, their minds were made up.
“We weren’t trying to follow each other,” Duckenfield said. “We ended up liking all the same people.”
“We knew we were looking at the same schools, but we were letting it all play out,” Forker said. “I think for how long we played together, we ended up liking the same coaches, liking the same teams, liking the same girls. We both wanted the same thing out of school.”
As senior co-captains, anchoring the defense with their best friend at their side was a special experience.
Both are impressed, but not surprised, with the growth of the other’s game.
Forker compliments Duckenfield’s textbook form, whether she’s zipping a pass across the field or checking the ball away from an opponent. Duckenfield says whenever the team gets in a bind transitioning from defense to offense, the team just turns to Forker. Just 5-foot-1 now, she muscles her way out of the pack and pushes the ball up the field, even while battling a hand injury most of the season.
“It is nice that defense is doing well this year,” Duckenfield said. “And it is nice to share that with each other and encourage each other. We are both really happy when each other does well.”
Their genuine support of one another is just as special as the longevity of their friendship, Jenny Duckenfield says.
“It is unique in the sense that there has never been competition between the two of them,” Jenny said. “They’ve always championed each other and supported each other. There has never been jealousy between them. There has always been support and love. I think that in itself is very special.”
Both graduated in May. Forker had a job lined up in Philadelphia in management and consulting. Duckenfield is pursuing a broadcasting career.
Regardless of what lies ahead, the two friends know the last 12 years have truly been rare and memorable.
“It is definitely really nostalgic,” Forker said. “We still have our little Haven uniforms… those are the days. It is really weird that is going to come to an end. It is definitely unique. I’ll never have this with someone else. That’s a really unique experience.”
