Sarah E. Mott

Sarah Elise Mott, 64, of complications from metastatic breast cancer. Born at home in Brighton, England in 1960, Sarah was destined to be an American original and early mover in women’s sports. At the age of three months, she opted to join her family on a trans-Atlantic crossing to New York aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth—ostensibly to further her father’s career but more likely due to her sense that the opportunities in women’s sports would be greater in America. 

She graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1978, a star volleyball player who helped lift the Dragons to their first city-wide championship in a generation. But Sarah’s true sports loves lay beyond volleyball—on Pittsburgh’s clay tennis courts and the ice hockey rinks where she tended goal for the pioneering women’s team, the Pittsburgh Pennies. She went on to skate for Cornell University where she was an All-Ivy goalie in each of her four years. Her efforts to advance gender equity in sports did not end with graduation—on returning home to Pittsburgh, she joined two men’s hockey leagues as goalie. Sarah recalled that not all men on opposing sides responded well: “At the end of the first period, when I took off my mask, you could see it dawn on them that it was a woman who’d been stopping their shots. This drew grudging respect from some of the men, while others would simply switch from trying to score goals to trying to kill the goalie.” One particular player sent repeated shots directly at her head, finally hitting the side of her helmet, then skated up afterward and said “I hope that wasn’t too much for you.” Sarah brushed him aside: “Oh, that? I’ve been kissed harder than that.” 

In addition to hockey, she was a perennial presence on Pittsburgh’s tennis courts and the regional circuits, at one point rising to number-one ranked USTA women’s tennis player in her age bracket for the Middle States Section. A talented artist, writer, and software programmer, Sarah’s fiercely-held political views were well known to friends and family, and no secret to those posting on a range of on-line sports forums. As a proud, childless cat lady immigrant, she felt a deep stake in her adopted country’s future, and embodied the adage that “one of the joys of reading the New York Times is threatening to cancel one’s subscription.” 

Adored by her three nephews, twin cats, brother & sister-in-law, and many friends and teammates, Sarah’s remarkable presence will forever be remembered and deeply missed in all of our lives. Family, friends, and former teammates are welcome at a celebration of Sarah’s life on Sunday, October 20th, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Hickory Heights Golf Club, Bridgeville PA 15017. 

Arrangements entrusted to WILLIAM SLATER II FUNERAL SERVICE, 1650 Greentree Road, Scott Twp., 15220 (412-563-2800).