Solari also played lacrosse for four seasons at Sandwich and helped take the Lady Knights to four Atlantic Coast League Championships. Carpenter played lacrosse as well at Bourne High where she was a two-time captain, and Callinan was the golf team captain for the Clippers in her senior season, helping to lead the team to the ACL championship.

They arrived at MMA with established athletic pedigrees, and while the regimental lifestyle and academic curriculum could at times be daunting, they each determined to be involved in more than one sport. Next spring when the ice melts off the field at Clean Harbors Stadium, Carpenter and Solari will begin their third season with the Buccaneer lacrosse team, while Callinan will rejoin the Buccaneer sailing team on Great Herring Pond.

Callinan is an energy systems engineering major. She plans to work in sustainable design when she graduates and attend graduate school, eventually with a career in sustainable architecture. She hopes one day to take her expertise in renewable energy systems into the classroom and become a college professor. Solari is a marine safety and environmental protection major, who upon graduation plans to become an environmental safety officer with a major cruise line with plans to see the world. During sea term in her freshman year Solari sailed on the TS Kennedy to Columbia, Barbados, Curacao and Miami. Carpenter, a facilities engineering major, plans to use her degree as an inspector primarily in the field of boiler and heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.

While their career paths beyond Massachusetts Maritime may take them in different directions, soccer has brought them together, where for the past three fall seasons they have played the game they grew up with.

“I can’t imagine not playing soccer,” Solari said. “I’ve been playing the game since I was 6, and I knew at Mass Maritime I could play two sports.”

“I always played three sports in high school,” Carpenter said. “It helped me focus. It gets me away from the classroom and relieves stress.”

“I just love soccer,” Callinan said. “I wouldn’t know what to do without it. Here at Mass Maritime sports can be an outlet from the classroom and the regiment.”

Carpenter and Callinan are team captains this fall for the Buccaneers. Carpenter plays on defense, while Solari and Callinan are midfielders.

“In college the game is more competitive, physical and faster,” Solari said. “I enjoy that.”

“At this level we play a more tactical game,” Carpenter said. “It’s a lot faster and you have to communicate.”

While having known one another for just three seasons, they play the game like they’ve done it together from the day they kicked their first soccer ball.

“We’re a team and I like that as a team we work together and help each other grow,” Carpenter said.

“We’ve been together for three years now,” Callinan said, “and all the time we’re working better together.”

“I really like our team and our coaches,” Solari said. “Our coaches have helped me not only with soccer, but in becoming a better leader. They don’t sugarcoat anything. They are honest and are helping us grow as players and people.”

Massachusetts Maritime Academy didn’t require any of the three women to travel far for their college education. Carpenter, in fact, attended high school in the same town, while Callinan and Solari are an easy drive from home. However, there was more to their choosing to attend MMA than location.

“I always saw Mass Maritime as unique,” Solari said. “My brother came here and I saw it through his eyes. I saw the opportunities he had and the travel. Of all the schools I visited, it was here that I was most comfortable.”

“I wasn’t thinking of coming to school here,” Carpenter said. “I was looking at other schools and thinking of playing sports. But, my brother went to school here and talking with him I decided to come here for engineering.”

“I never put much effort into looking at colleges my senior year,” Callinan said. “My brother and sister came here and I guess I knew I’d come here and study sustainable engineering. Your education here is practical. The classes are small, the professors know you and you can talk with them.”

“The classes are so diverse,” Solari said. “I feel that I can relate what I have learned in my classes to any job.”

While going to school close to home wasn’t a factor in the choice to attend MMA, it certainly has it benefits.

“I’m a real family person,” Carpenter said. “That’s why I chose facilities engineering, so I can stay on land and hopefully close to home. Being so close to home now is great. My mom brings me food and I don’t have to pay to do my laundry. It’s nice to be able to go home and I can still work on weekends.”

“I’m pretty forgetful,” Callinan said. “It’s very convenient to be able to run home when you forget something and it’s nice to go home on weekends.”

“It is nice being this close,” Solari said. “I can go home and see my family whenever I want.”

Another advantage to having home so close is that in all three cases, the women noted that family and friends make the trip to Clean Harbors Stadium to watch them play.

Next year will be their final soccer season, and when it’s over and time to hang up their cleats, they’ll be able to look back upon their accomplishments with pride, and while the future may not include soccer, they will each undertake it armed with the academic and practical means for success.