Adriana Lucar: The Peruvian powerhouse

by SAVANNAH LEE asst. photographer

Leaving home and going away to college is a difficult transition for most college freshmen. But leaving home and heading off to college in a foreign country at the age of 18 is not only difficult, it’s a very gutsy thing to do.

Adriana Lucar grew up in Lima, Peru. When she was 6 years old she began playing soccer with her older brother and his friends. She became heavily involved in the game as she got older and played in high school and for the national U-17 and U-20 teams of Peru.

In Peru, women’s soccer is not offered at the college level. Lucar wanted to continue playing so during her senior year of high school she began looking into going to college here in the Unites States.

She said one of her friend’s mothers had a website that hosted various sports videos, so she recorded herself in a few games and posted the videos on the website.

Harding University’s women’s soccer coach Greg Harris heard about Lucar through a friend and watched the videos of her playing. “She’s a phenomenal player,” Harris said.“I said,‘You know, let’s see what we can do about bringing her in’.”

Harris began recruiting Lucar in October 2009. By the end of November she was committed to playing for Harding, and two weeks later she had finished her visa paper work. Lucar arrived at Harding in spring 2010.

“I think God has a way of working it out to where he brings people here that need to be here,”Harris said.

Moving to Harding was a big step for Lucar. She left her family and friends in Peru so she could continue playing soccer. Adriana left her home country in December during summer and traded her swimsuit for a snowsuit as it was snowing when she arrived in Arkansas. She didn’t know anyone or speak our language.

“It was just difficult,” Lucar said. “I thought it would be so easy to just come here and play, but the first two weeks here I just wanted to go home. I didn’t want to stay here.”

Harris said the girls on the team did a good job of getting Lucar involved and becoming a part of the team. He said Lauren Scharf took Lucar in and roomed with her.

“That was huge for us,” Harris said. “Lauren taking her in and deciding to room with Adriana was a big deal of us keeping Adriana here. She’s fun to have around, she’s very open, very honest and she’s a hard worker.”

Lucar said she is good with being at Harding now. She is able to talk with her family and friends through Skype and Facebook.

“I love soccer. I can’t live without it,” Lucar said.“That’s why I’m here, I’m here in the USA, you know, far away from my family and friends just because I really want to play soccer.”

Bison tennis undefeated in fall

The Harding mens’ tennis team remains perfect as it heads into spring

by ALEXIS HOSTICKA features editor

After finishing the fall season with a perfect record of 5-0, the men’s tennis team aims to continue the streak into the spring season. The Bisons wrapped up the fall by shutting out Hendrix College and head into the offseason with high expectations.

“My goal for the spring season is to continue to work hard and get better, and as a team I think we can win every match we go into,” freshman Jon Mark Rowden said.

Rowden said he credits the successful season in part to the fact that the players are so close. This in turn causes the players to help each other.

Returning junior Adam Edwards said he sees improvement from past seasons and is proud of the team for it. He said the team worked very hard in order to get in better shape, which in turn helped the team beat its biggest rival.

“Our toughest rival was Arkansas Pine Bluff, whom we beat pretty handily this year because of the shape we’re in,” Edwards said.

“The new freshmen [also] stepped up and took a big part in winning important matches.”

The players said they agree that they have all worked very had this season to achieve a perfect record.

According to Edwards, the team is in better shape than last year, and junior Anthony Saegert agrees.

“This season we are really focusing on our conditioning,” Saegert said. “We’re working in the gym and doing speed drills and agilities. We’ve been stronger, both mentally and physically, than our opponents.”

Saegert said he believes that the team has accomplished a lot during the season starting with beating the University of Fort Smith in the opener and Hendrix College in the home opener. These, according to Saegart, are both very solid teams.

Since the fall season has come to a close, the team will be doing offseason training until spring season begins in February, preparing for difficult competition in the new conference.

“We are really going to focus on our fitness level to stay in shape through the rest of the offseason,” Saegart said. “We have a tough schedule this spring and we’re looking forward to competing in the new conference.”

Edwards said that the team has become tighter since his freshman year and this fact will help them to improve throughout the offseason and spring.

“I think so far this season our team has become closer than the past two years,” Edwards said. “[There was] nothing bad about the other two years. I just think being older has helped, and we all push each other to play better and run harder.”

Men’s spring tennis season starts Tues. Feb. 7 at Hendrix College, and the first home match will be on Fri. Feb. 10 versus John Brown University.