The University of Indianapolis women’s lacrosse team kicks off their season later this month with an away game against Florida Southern College. They will play in Alabama on Feb. 16, before traveling to Georgia to play Feb. 18. According to new head coach Peyton Romig, the team is eager to finally get onto the field.
“This year, [I’m] pretty excited to one, just get started,” Romig said. “We’ve got a pretty tough schedule, a good mixture of games and it’ll be good to see how we play from years past. So I’m excited to see where the team goes and the schedule will really help us. We’re jumping right into it.”
According to attacker Mackenzie Winn, the upcoming season is a challenging one. Winn said that the schedule takes the team around the nation.
“We have a pretty difficult schedule this year, which is really exciting,” Winn said. “Our first game is against Florida Southern which will be a great challenge for us. Of course we have our rival GVSU, Grand Valley State University, which is up in Michigan. And this year, we get to go to Colorado for a week and play Regis, which is also a big rivalry.”
Romig is in her first year as head coach, having previously attended UIndy as student and a player for the lacrosse team. Romig said that new changes on the coaching staff has been one of the hurdles the team has had to overcome.
“I know the culture [of the] University of Indianapolis, but overall with just a new team, with girls I didn’t know before [and] first year as a head coach, [there will] always be some bumps in the road and getting used to some things,” Romig said.
According to Romig, another challenge the team has been faced with is less roster depth compared to previous years. Despite the lack of numbers, Romig is confident that the team will be able to persevere through this.
“That’s gonna be tough to overcome,” Romig said, “but the girls are tough and they’ve shown that they’re okay with it, and we’re gonna get through it.”
Winn said that winning the conference championship is one of the major goals the team is aiming for this season. However, Winn said that taking the season one game at a time is something the team has been focusing on.
“That’s all we can really do, focus on the present,” Winn said. “I think we, as a team, have been trying to come to that understanding of taking one thing at a time, control what we can control. Some goals that we have is maintaining our GLVC conference championship streak. And all four years that I’ve been here, we’ve won it, so that has been a major goal for us this year.”
Romig said that adapting to being a coach at UIndy instead of a player has proved to be something different, but not difficult. Romig praised the behind the scenes support that the UIndy women’s lacrosse program has gotten from the administration and throughout the university.
Winn said that the team has faced a lot of ups and downs, but that they have been able to stick together to get through it. According to Winn, the culture of the team has become stronger due to their resilience. Winn said that fans of UIndy women’s lacrosse should look forward to the upcoming games.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it,” Winn said. “Super excited to get the games started, and I think most of the girls can agree with me on that. We’ve been working really hard in the off-season and in the preseason right now throughout January. We’re all really excited for our season. And we’re excited to have our coaches on board with the same goals as us.”
