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Freshmen duo leads club lacrosse |
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Thursday, 29 November 2007 |
 The ASU women's lacrosse team stands outside Plemmons Student Union. Maggie Melvin (left center) and Alana Lawson (right center) have taken over informal coaching duties this season. Photo by Holt Menzies
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by LILES NEAL
Intern Sports Reporter
In the fall of 2005, a group of women lacrosse players tried to start a club team at Appalachian State University. Two years later, the club has a year under its belt and a growing program led by two standout freshmen.
Alana Lawson and Maggie Melvin met through a lacrosse group on Facebook.com and began getting to know each other through e-mails.
“We had a lot in common, so we decided to room together,” Melvin said. “Now we’re best friends.”
The team is young both in terms of age and experience.
“We taught half the girls on our team [to play] and they’re doing very well,” club president Nikki MacBride said.
However, Lawson and Melvin came to the team with plenty of experience in the sport.
Lawson’s high school did not have a team when she started playing in 10th grade, so she founded a club team to play on.
Eventually, the high school started a varsity program, but Lawson stuck
with her club team, leading them as a captain even against her own high
school varsity team.
Melvin started playing in a recreational league when she was in the
third grade and coached youth players. She also captained her high
school team.
Melvin and Lawson were chosen to lead the team as captains for a tournament this fall.
“I was captain in high school so I was used to leading the other
girls,” Melvin said. “But I wasn’t really expecting anything like that
as a freshman.”
Lawson said the older players never wrote her off just because she was younger.
“They wanted to take my advice even though I was a freshman,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
Melvin said she thinks her experience as a coach helped identify her as a leader for a team that does not have one.
“Not having a coach is kind of hard, so having the authority to step up was kind of nice,” Melvin said.
The team attended only one tournament this fall, but they hope the group experience will help them play better together.
Lawson said team chemistry is one of her biggest goals for the team right now.
“We’re all friends, but we don’t play together very well yet,” Lawson said.
“Over time, you start to learn who you work well with and we’re still
figuring that out,” Melvin said. “With time, I know we’ll get better.”
Melvin also hopes to continue to have organized practices despite the lack of a formal coach.
Lawson and Melvin have not limited their activities to lacrosse.
“I thought I was just going to play lacrosse, but I also joined a
sorority,” Melvin said. “It’s a lot of work, and I’m really busy.”
Lawson joined the same sorority Melvin did - Kappa Delta.
“We were having a hard time meeting people,” Lawson said. “So we thought we’d look into it.”
Melvin said sometimes the schedules conflict, but she enjoys the fact that she has several different groups of friends.
“The sororities want the girls to be involved in other activities,”
Melvin said. “They don’t want the sorority to be your whole life.”
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