- Portret
Goalgetters: Caia van Maasakker, SCHC's silent force
The Tulp Hoofdklasse Women broke the 20,000-goal mark in the first half of the season. A great occasion to zoom in on the biggest goal-scoring machines in the women's league. In part 2: Caia van Maasakker.
Van Maasakker was not the player who left the audience open-mouthed because of her inimitable actions or technical feats. The tall centre-back, who wore the SCHC shirt between 2005 and 2021, was best known as a very reliable pawn in defense. A quiet leader, who was not quick to come to the fore but was always present. She owed this in part to her deadly penalty corner.
Because if you can score 204 goals in the Hoofdklasse in 16 seasons for the Bilthoven team, you've got to have some skills. Van Maasakker was consistently in double figures in 11 seasons, tapping the twenty-goal mark in a single season no less than four times. She was a goal guarantee, the joker SCHC always had in reserve.
To this day, she leads the club's all-time top scorer list, although Yibbi Jansen, her former teammate, threatens to take over that title soon.
Symbol of SCHC's development
Van Maasakker witnessed SCHC's rise after the team's promotion to the Hoofdklasse in 2004. As a 16-year-old, she made her debut in the first team in the 2005-2006 season. The first few years SCHC battled relegation, but soon (in the 2008/2009 season) the club made it to the play-offs for the first time in history.
Stichtsche's best period were the years between 2013 and 2016, when the Bilthoveners reached the NK finals twice and won the European Cup. Van Maasakker did not become national champion with the team, a title still missing from the club's list of honours.
With the Dutch national team, Van Maasakker won one award after another between 2011 and 2021 as a regular force in defence and penalty corner specialist. In the 212 international matches she played for the Netherlands, she hit 69 goals. She experienced her finest moment in the Olympic final in Tokyo in 2021, when she played a major part in the 3-1 victory against Argentina with two converted penalty corners and an assist from a penalty corner. A glorious end to an impressive (international) career.
Previously published in this series:
The eternal record by Lisanne Lejeune
