The Augustana women’s lacrosse team is looking to build off of last season’s 8-7 overall record while going 2-4 in conference. Last year was a bit of a drop-off after the team went undefeated in conference in 2016 and 2017.
As of April 7, the team is 4-7 overall and have dropped their first two conference games. The Vikings look to turn it around with plenty of the season left to play. Senior Bailey Aasen talked about the team’s mindset going into the rest of the conference games.
“Our mindset has been derived around some core words that our team has chosen to focus on. We really work on pushing each other to do our best, staying enthusiastic, disciplined, utilizing each teammate, bouncing back from any hardships and always learning from our mistakes,” Aasen said. “We are proud of our continuing progress, and we always enter each game with motivating mindsets.”
Although the focus of the Vikings is on this season, senior Christina McCabe talked about the unfortunate circumstances that caused their underwhelming performance last year. For instance, Augustana’s team wasn’t bringing in as many recruits as the other CCIW teams were.
“It was very difficult to deal with the learning curve last season and even continuing this season as we do have a smaller and younger team, but something that I really try to instill in the team moving forward next year when us upperclassmen are gone is to be disciplined and composed within any face of adversity,” McCabe said.
With great things this season in their sights, Aasen touched on the goals they have as a team.
“I would say our main goal is playing with consistency,” Aasen said. “We constantly look at our games and practice and ask ourselves if we are moving forward and playing at our highest level at every moment.”
With a lot of CCIW matchups coming up, Aasen also talked about what games she is most looking forward to playing.
“I’m not sure if there is only one game that I am the most excited for,” Aasen said. “I would say I am excited about each conference game, and following that, I am very excited for the CCIW tournament games. I love the passion that comes from all teams during conference play.”
In their senior seasons, both Aasen and McCabe are playing their final games as a Viking. They both talked about what it’s like as seniors on this squad.
“It feels completely surreal thinking back to the impact the seniors had on me as a freshman. I cannot thank them enough for welcoming me into Augie Lax and showing me what it means to be a part of this team, and as a senior, I am excited to bring that to our underclassmen,” Aasen said. “I am proud to be a part of our team, and I feel just as in love with lacrosse as ever.”
McCabe also had a positive outlook on her senior season.
“I’m personally just trying to keep moral as high as possible and do the best that I can to lead by example,” McCabe said. “I’ve really learned that it doesn’t matter if we win or lose at the end of the day, some teams are going to be better and that’s just that all in all, but if we leave the field knowing we truly left everything we had in it and tried to not only correct our mistakes but work together and do our best for the other girls on the field, then our job is done.”
The next game for women’s lacrosse is Saturday, April 13 at 4 p.m where they take on Carroll at Augustana.