After a successful regular season, the Augustana women’s lacrosse team is ready to come out and dominate in the CCIW conference tournament, which they begin with Carthage on Wednesday.
The Vikings are the number one team in the conference and are ready to host the number four team on home turf to get the win and bid for the NCAA nationaltournament.
Head coach Meredith Newman has high expectations for this coming week.
“If we play our game, we should come out with a favorable result,” said Newman. “We played the three teams that we should play in the tournament, and the closest game was 13-17.”
With a setback early on in the season, the team was able to come back and continue the season with only one loss.
“It was a lesson we needed to learn,” Newman said. “We had seven new starters, and we needed to figure out how we were going to react in those situations as a team rather than individuals. We’ve been undefeated ever since.”
Newman attributes their record to the team chemistry and their team mantra, “We before me.”
Although they play as one unit, it’s the individuals on the team that use their strengths to push the team forward.
“We have 10 seniors and quite a few honored CCIW players of the week,” Newman said. “Our captains bring everyone together. We’re number one in the western region, our players are nationally ranked and we’re ranked as a team in the top 10 of every aspect of the game.”
Senior and captain Cori Duncan talked about the hard work everyone on the team has put into this season.
“Our season has been a lot of fun,” said Duncan. “We prepare everyday doing drills specific to prepare us for certain teams, and we’re constantly putting in extra work. We put a lot of preparation into each team, and since we’ve played them all before, what we did early in the season will help us in the tournament.”
Duncan expects the competition to challenge them but thinks that it’s good for the team and their future.
“Across the board, we have a team of great leaders who are ready,” Duncan said. “People will be ready to put up a fight and compete, which we are looking forward to. We are always looking for a challenge.”