The University of Indianapolis women’s lacrosse team is gearing up for its postseason tournaments with the Great Lakes Valley Conference and NCAA tournaments both coming up in May.
After leading the Greyhounds to a national title in 2022 as a player, Head Coach Payton Romig has been working to get the team back to that level of success. Romig said she put together a challenging schedule for this season in order to test her team throughout the season, which has been good and bad, she said. Although the team had more losses than she would have preferred, Romig said facing tough competition throughout the season has made them a stronger team, and they have already faced most of the teams they expect to see in the postseason. In the team’s last two regular season games, Romig said they will focus on playing up to the standard they have set and continue honing every part of their game.
“We always want to focus on us and what we can do to be better,” Romig said. “We call it our UIndy standard, what we think we should look like every time we step on the field. We’re really focusing on us and our play and what we’re going to do on offense, against our defense, what our defense is going to make the adjustments for their offense, and all of that.”
The team is 4-1 in conference play with the one loss coming from Maryville, where the Hounds lost 16-18. The team faced similar struggles with Maryville last season, as they lost to them in the regular season, won at the GLVC championship game but lost again to Saints in the NCAA tournament, according to UIndy Athletics. Despite these challenges, Romig said being 4-1 in conference play is a confidence booster.
“It’s great seeing what we can do when we get into our conference,” Romig said. “We’ve played everyone at least once, so we have confidence in what we can do, what we can do better with other teams, or get what changes they’re going to make and how they’re going to play. So it does give us confidence, and then also that one loss does give us a little fire to want to change that to a win for us as well in conference.”
According to Romig, the women’s NCAA tournament bracket has expanded to include six teams per region instead of four. She said teams either qualify via an automatic bid when they win their conference tournament or are selected by a committee. UIndy is currently ranked second in the Midwest regional, right behind Maryville. Romig said she hopes the team can earn a first or second seed for the NCAA tournament, which would give them a bye in the first weekend.
Despite the team’s five losses on the season, Romig said the team is ready to make a run in the postseason. She said those losses have taught them things they need to improve and have given them even more determination for the upcoming tournaments.
“Our record may not show what we obviously wanted,” Romig said. “We got a few more losses than we would like, but I think we are prepared and ready to see anything going into the postseason.”
