Student-athletes on their top lessons from the field, pool and ice
Audrey McMillan ’24
Women’s Competitive Club Ice Hockey (2021 to present)
A handmade “Let’s Go Audrey” poster illustrates what Audrey McMillan ’24 loves about playing hockey: the community.
“My family watches hockey together, we talk about hockey together,” she says. “My grandfather coached hockey and my father played in college.”
The Connecticut native was “just a baby” when she donned her first pair of skates — double blade — to be pulled around the ice by her father. Home ice today is the Bentley Arena.
“When I look out at fans and see my sorority sisters, other athletes, classmates and even professors, I get a true sense of togetherness,” says McMillan, now president of the Falcon women’s competitive club ice hockey team.
She brings the same energy to the broader campus community, as an orientation leader and vice president of training for Bentley student ambassadors. One recent example: speaking to the entire first-year class about dealing with homesickness and adjusting to campus life.
“I had many students approach me afterward and in the following weeks about how my advice helped them,” McMillan says. “It’s important to be a resource for the people around you.”
This fall, players are counting on each other more than ever, as the team moves up to a more competitive conference: the Independent Women’s Club Hockey League. Their schedule has twice as many games as last year.
“It’s challenging, but the new league is something we all really want,” says McMillan, a Marketing major with minors in Management and Sports Management. “It’s rewarding to know we’re coming together as a team to impact the program and future Falcons.”
Lucy Ambroult ’24
Women’s Track and Field (2021 to present)
Lucy Ambroult ’24 can nail a 19-foot long jump and sprint 100 meters in 12.65 seconds, but her record-breaking accomplishments on the women’s track and field team don’t ease race-day jitters. What does help: a teammate who can ground your nerves.
“Chase Davies would sit down with me before a race or jump,” Ambroult says of the former team captain who graduated in spring 2022. “She’d say, ‘You’re fine, you’re seeded first.’ Then I would do the same thing for her.”
Sometimes, though, strength has to come from within.
She remembers a meet in April 2022 at the University of California San Diego. The Golden State native had just tied the Falcon record for the 100 meters.
“Everyone was hyping me up that I would break the record in front of my parents,” recalls Ambroult, who would need to shave her time by a hundredth of a second. “I came in 15th and felt humiliated.”
After the race she took a short walk to gather her composure. “I knew I didn’t want to feel like this again and that I would take steps to change that.”
The commitment to “buckle down” in the face of difficulty helps her juggle sports and academics. Last spring, she was studying macroeconomics while training for both the New England Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the Northeast-10 Track Conference Championships.
“The class required a lot of work and focus,” says the International Affairs major. “Plus, the final was the same week as the New Englands.”
Ambroult earned All-New England honors at that competition by placing sixth in New England across divisions. The other victory, she says: balancing two stressful workloads.
Lucas Vanroboys ’23
Men’s Ice Hockey (2019 to present)
Canada-born Lucas Vanroboys ’23 thrives on the energy of playing DI hockey in the Bentley Arena. His first faceoff, against the University of New Hampshire, ended with an overtime win in a packed house.
“I hadn’t played in a building that was so loud and energetic before, so that was really cool,” he says. “Especially for the game to end in such a dramatic fashion.”
The fanfare for athletics doesn’t end in the arena. Professors often congratulate Vanroboys after a Falcons win. One ended a Tuesday “night bomb” class at an early 8:30 p.m. — as long as students headed out with him to watch a field hockey game.
“I like that faculty members are in tune with student-athletes,” says Vanroboys, an Economics-Finance major and one of three All-American Scholars at Bentley in 2021-2022. “It’s that kind of school spirit that joins people together and gives us all a common thing to root for.”
His work ethic on the ice carries over to other parts of Bentley life. Vanroboys has founded EndorseMate LLC to level the playing field for endorsement deals, which typically go to large corporations and celebrities. Whatever the future holds, he’ll apply the formula that has taken him this far — “giving 110% and having a positive, tenacious attitude.”
Edward Monigan IV ’24
Creative Marketing Intern and Arena Events Production and AV Staff (2021 to present)
The men’s swimming and diving team isn’t the only place that Edward Monigan IV ’24 has made a splash at Bentley. He’s found opportunities to pursue another talent: photographing and filming fellow student-athletes.
“Connecting with athletes and capturing their energy and excitement for the game they love drives my passion for this,” says Monigan, whose interest in photography started in high school.
At Bentley, he continued swimming competitively, while also serving as a creative marketing intern for Falcon Athletics. Sophomore year presented a choice, he says, “continue the sport I love or pursue a developing career that I love.”
Monigan chose the latter and changed his major from Marketing to Creative Industries. Working on campus has opened other doors, including to the Worcester Red Sox and his first-ever gig as a videographer.
“I dove headfirst into the organization,” he says, “arriving early and staying late to perfect my craft.”
A member of the audio-visual staff at the Bentley Arena, Monigan operates broadcast cameras, communicates with a team of directors at different sporting events, creates graphics and informational media for in-house video boards, and manages lighting and media. In August 2022, he landed a freelance assignment as a creative camera operator at Harvard University.
“My work at Bentley has led me down a path to many new opportunities that I once thought were not possible.”
Excerpt from Bentley Magazine