UF Women’s lacrosse season off to rocky start

By Devin Hopkins

hopkinsd@findlay.edu

The University of Findlay Women’s Lacrosse team started its season with five back to back losses but has won two of the last three games. The team still has high hopes for the upcoming 2023 season.

UF senior Erin Kodger, a defender for the Women’s Lacrosse team, was disappointed but still optimistic.

“We lost but I feel like the first game, everything is pretty new,” Kodger said. “It’s like your first time playing with your team, so we were just working things out and getting into the rhythm of things, and we’re still trying to figure out how to click with each other.”

 On Feb. 17 the team lost 9-14 against McKendree University, followed by a 22-2 loss against the University of Indianapolis on Feb. 19 and a 15-1 loss to Slippery Rock University on Feb. 27. Though their games did not turn out the way they hoped, they are still excited for their season.

Allison Kelly, the University of Findlay Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach, is ready to get started. “I’m always very excited when games start,” Kelly said. “It’s a long period of time of practice between January when they come back from Christmas break to our first game, so I was excited to get the games rolling.”

Coach Kelly has been coaching the Women’s Lacrosse team at the University since the summer of 2019. After COVID-19 hit, she was promoted to head coach in the summer of 2020. This is Coach Kelly’s fourth season at the University of Findlay, and she is very excited to see how her team performs this year.

There are a lot of young players on the team this year, and it is taking a bit of time to learn how each player works with one another, but Coach Kelly has a positive outlook on the rest of the season. Many players have found a family within their team and look forward to the season ahead.

Kodger says there is still room for progress.

“I think that our team has a lot of room for growth still, and we’ve already grown so much. I think that we have a lot of potential as a team,” Kodger said. She expects that they will continue to improve as the season goes on.

The team is most excited for the conference games during the season. Their goal is to both make it to the conference championship, and to host it at the University. The University of Findlay has never hosted the G-MAC conference championship for Women’s Lacrosse.

Paige Falk, an attacker for the women’s lacrosse team is recovering from an ACL injury, but ready to take on the G-MAC opponents.

“I’m looking forward the most to conference games,” Falk said. “Right now, we’re playing difficult teams to beat to get us ready for our conference games, but those (conference games) are what really matter.”

The team has several games coming up in the next month. UF lacrosse plays a 17-game season wrapping up April 30 at Lake Erie College.