Spring is on the way, which means so are spring sports at Drury University. Drury Women’s Lacrosse has their first two games of the season this weekend, and they are diving in headfirst. The Mirror interviewed Annika Gabel, sophomore goalie for the DU lacrosse team, on her thoughts on the big games.

The women are traveling to Columbia this weekend, where they’ll face off against University of Missouri (Mizzou) and Missouri State. Mizzou is definitely on the team’s radar this year. They played Mizzou twice last year, winning against them once and then losing the second game.

“I’m excited to see how well we can compete with them,” Gabel says. “I’m excited to see us play as a team. We’re a little different every year, and I think we’re stacked this year especially.”

Mizzou might be a challenge, but Gabel says the girls are ready. The team practiced hard in the off-season, five days a week from late August to October. When the spring semester rolled around, the team hit the ground running. They practice four days a week and lift every Thursday. 

“We have also definitely been conditioning a lot, which will help us. The team does cardio after most practices, whether that be purely running or running with lacrosse sticks and picking up ground balls.We’ve also worked on a lot of defense,” says Gabel.

She explained that the women have been especially focused on deepening the complexity of the defensive side of the game, running lots of defense-focused drills. Gabel has one year of collegiate lacrosse under her belt, but a lot has been learned during that single season.

 “I think I’m a lot more confident as a player. I’m a lot better about not getting in my head when I get hit. So, I would say my mental game has improved a lot.”

As far as pre-game rituals go, Gabel doesn’t have too many. “I’m not really a superstitious person,” she said. “But I’ve been trying to not drink too many energy drinks, so I usually just drink some water. I also have a pregame playlist I listen to, so I listen to it up until the game starts. Other than that, I just try to relax.”

Overall, Gabel is ready to head into her second season, and Drury Women’s Lacrosse is prepared for the road ahead.

Featured photo courtesy of Annika Gabel