SPORTS
4 THE REFLECTOR
APRIL 14, 2021
Photo by Jacob Walton
Photo by Jacob Walton
Women’s Lacrosse No. 1
Junior midfielder Jess Soenen dodges a Lewis University defender. In that game Soenen had scored two goals. The Hounds so far this year have given up 26 goals in their first seven games while putting up an astounding 138 with 18 different players scoring a goal.
By Madison Gomez ONLINE EDITOR
Traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina to face off against the No. 5 Queens University Royals has been the highlight of the University of Indianapolis Women’s Lacrosse season so far, senior attacker Abigail Lagos said. She was one of the driving forces in that 15-5 win over Queens, with her having seven goals in the top 10 match-up. The team has never beaten someone that highly ranked, so the win felt great, Lagos said.That victory will not be stopping the Hounds from pushing during practice; Lagos said they will not be complacent with success. “One thing that Coach [ James
Delaney] reminds us is ‘How bad do you want it on just a random Tuesday, because you’re gonna want it really bad in May,” Lagos said. “So I think, especially with this whole year, you never know when it’s going to be taken from you. I think that little piece is always in the back of all of our minds when we’re going out to practice, or maybe it’s bad weather out or we have some hard drills. When we went home on March 13 last year, that’s all we wanted to do was to go out and do hard drills. We wanted to be doing sprints with each other.” Keeping that same motivation up throughout the season can be hard, but with the big win against Queens and having good practices back to back the
team are finding themselves in a groove, according to Lagos. Lagos was not alone in the goals column with senior attacker Grace Gunneson having three goals and senior attacker Lauryn Hardoy scoring
I think that this year is the year to have a championship team.” three goals as well. Since that early-season win over Queens, the Hounds have come up with big win after big win with a victory over No. 10 Grand Valley State University 9-7 and then that next week a win over
Golf ranked top 5
Senior attacker Abigail Lagos pushes the ball upfield in another dominant win this year as they took down Lewis University 25-1, where Lagos recorded 5 goals and 3 assists.
No. 25 Colorado Mesa University 18-7. Now the Hounds are sitting at No. 1 in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll, according to UIndy Athletics, and midfielder/draw specialist Peyton Romig, Lagos and King have all won awards for their performances so far. Lagos said she can see the team as a whole and many individuals winning awards by the end of the season. Even the freshmen are continuing to give their all, according to Lagos, for a spot in a starting position and playing time. The team does not have worries so far in the season. Lagos said the dynamic around the team is solid. She said it is because of the solid recruiting on Head Coach James Delaney’s part, and that all they have to do now is work on perfecting
their game at this point in the season. With five games left in the season, there is only one top 25 team in the forecast for the Hounds, a match-up with former No. 1 and currently No. 2 Lindenwood. King said that every day Delaney is pushing the team to be as good as they possibly can be and that at times when the team is not playing for each other, they are playing for him. The upper and underclassmen are getting along great, King said, and there are girls stepping up to help others, which also improves their game at the same time. “I think that this year is the year to have a championship team,” King said. “We have a good, experienced team and girls who would do anything to win.”
Women’s Golf’s streak of program excellence continues By Jacob Walton SPORTS EDITOR & PHOTO EDITOR
For the past ten years, the University of Indianapolis Women’s Golf Team has been one of the best programs in all of NCAA Division II women’s golf with seven regional championships in the last eight years, 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and two national championships, one in 2015 and the other just three years ago in 2018, according to UIndy Athletics. This level of success is continuing this year as the team sits at No. 5 in the nation and is coming off their first ever team win at the Barry Invitational in Miami Shores, Florida. At the Barry Invitational, senior Anna Kramer took the lead for the Hounds with a second place finish to help propel the Hounds to a victory in the stacked field which included seven of the top 25 teams in D2, according to UIndy Athletics. Kramer said that the team was coming off a disappointing performance
in their first spring meet at the Emerald Coast Classic but they were able to find themselves at the Barry Invitational. She said she shifted her mindset going into that tournament. “I really try and just enjoy myself out there and have fun. I feel like when I start getting like worked up or just mad over shots, it just makes me play worse,” Kramer said.“So there’s really nothing you can do about a bad shot after you hit it. So I just have to move on and I think I’ve gotten a lot better mentally as well. Just try and enjoy it as much as I can because it won’t last forever.” According to Head Golf Coach Brent Nicoson, the team has an incredible work ethic and they have done a great job handling adversity, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that this team is building upon the foundations set by previous squads. “We have five girls that we know can win tournaments, and that’s what it takes to try to get the ultimate goal of what we want: conference, regional, and then trying to make it back to the national
championship and be relevant,” Nicoson said.“But this team has a great work ethic. Not that our teams in the past haven’t, they have and they’ve set the bar and they’ve shown these girls what it takes. But the work ethic and the desire and drive of this team is really, really high right now. I don’t have to tell them to go work. We know that they’re going to go work and do extra stuff.” Nicoson said that during the Emerald Coast Classic the team got complacent but that has changed. Now, the focus is to improve every single day. He said that this team is where they are for a reason. They are a very talented and skilled team and that the focus is going to be on coming together as a group as they head toward the postseason. “The biggest thing is they need to come together as a group, as a unit with having each other’s back, and that’s very hard right now,” Nicoson said. “... we’re preaching, ‘Hey, we want you guys to stay together as a team and get close, bond. But at the same time, stay apart, be safe.’”
Photo Contributed by UIndy Athletics
Senior Anna Kramer eyes a driver shot at the UIndy Fall Invitational. In that tournament the team finished first and since then have only not won one tournament out of the six they have participated in. At that first meet Kramer finished 3rd behind only her teammates.
Photo by Jacob Walton
Senior back Dana Youssef rears back to launch a ball upfield. Youssef has dished out four assists for the Greyhounds which leads the team. She also has two goals on 15 shots.
Soccer at No. 24 By Jazlyn Gomez
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT As the season progresses,the University of Indianapolis women’s soccer team has been ranked as No. 24 in the country for NCAA Division II. In their 11 games so far, the women’s team has held a record of 9-1-1. They are approaching the GLVC tournament with only two games left in the season, one against Lindenwood University and one versus the University of Missouri St. Louis. According to senior back Dana Youssef, this ranking has made the team excited as the recognition shows that their hard work and dedication to the game have paid off. Altogether, the team has scored 14 goals this season with Youssef ’s help of four assists. Youssef also scored a goal in their latest game against the Missouri University of Science and Technology. “It’s pretty exciting, honestly. I think we got some recognition for hard work last year and then the games that we have had so far, and I think it’s just nice to be considered to be that good. And that our hard work gets recognized,” Youssef said. However, it has not always been so easy for the team, according to Head Women’s Soccer Coach Holly Cox. Starting off the season with a loss against McKendree University, Cox said she worried about how the team could bounce back from it. Despite her worries, the team responded well to these challenges and continues to overcome, Cox said. “The hard work starts from practice,”
Cox said. “The preparation that we put into each training session, the effort that the ladies put in to accomplish what we need to do during practice, to me [that is what] sets us up for success on the weekend.” In order to achieve these accomplishments, Youssef said that the team has formed a bond together. She said the team is aware that they can strive for better together. “It’s the point of the season where we kind of get tired, but we just need to keep up our heads and know that we can push for more,” Youssef said. “And I think this can be the point that distinguishes us from other teams — that we don’t make excuses and that we just fight through it, although our bodies might be hurting.” With strong and established goals created at the beginning of the year, Cox says that overall the team aspires for the No. 1 spot. According to both Cox and Youssef, the team knows each other’s weaknesses and strengths in order to achieve their goals. The team does not settle for mediocrity, Cox said. “We had a tough start when COVID started because we weren’t able to do like any team bonding activities, but now, especially with the road trips, we became so much closer and we can integrate the new people pretty well,” Youssef said. “We know each other very well, and that is reflected on the field because we can support each other. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and how we can make up for each other’s mistakes.”