On Saturday Mar. 1 the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women’s lacrosse team lost their home opener to Carthage College.
Carthage came out strong in the first quarter with three back-to-back goals. The Eagles were unresponsive until the second quarter, when Ava Shiltz put one in the back of the net.
After Shiltz’s first goal, Carthage’s August Claridge scored a fourth goal for the Firebirds. With two minutes left before halftime, Tori Katzenmeyer, Shiltz and Angie Olla all scored leaving the game tied at 4-4 going into the second half.
After a promising start, Shiltz started the second half with two goals, increasing the Eagles lead to 6-4. Following Shiltz’s goals, Carthage made a dominating comeback with five goals, the Firebirds ended the third quarter with a 9-6 advantage.
In the last quarter Shiltz scored her fifth goal, a new personal record for goals scored in one game. However, Carthage replied by going on another run, this time scoring six consecutive goals. In the last two minutes UWL’s Megan Maloney scored the last point for the Eagles. The final score of the game was 15-8.
The 2024-2025 season marks Coach Nick Anagnostis’ first season as head coach of UWL. He has been coaching lacrosse for 16 years, nine of which have been at the collegiate level. Anagnostis’ experience mostly comes from coaching men’s lacrosse; however, he has spent the last two years coaching Division I women’s lacrosse at Winthrop University.
Anagnostis will be the team’s third coach in the past four years. With so much movement in the coaching staff, Anagnostis credits the team for their drive and passion to continue to push themselves to be successful.
“A big part of the reason why I even took this job was these girls… I don’t think that any of those other coaches understood how truly lucky they were to be coaching in a place like this,” Anagnostis said.
Although the team’s record is 0-2 for the season, Anagnostis emphasized the toughness of the team’s schedule this spring. UWL’s first game was against Division II Northern Michigan (NMU), who is ranked #5 in the Midwest. After NMU and Carthage, the Eagles will battle Illinois Wesleyan University and Edgewood College, all of whom beat the Eagles last season.
When speaking on the Eagle’s first game against NMU, Anagnostis said, “I think they got a lot of confidence in how good they are and how good they could be from that game… we’re all pretty excited about what we can do going forward”.
Although the season has started out with two losses, the team is focused on the goals they set for themselves this season. These include winning the state, being a top 25 program, being a competitor in the WIAC championship game and making it to the NCAA tournament.
Another goal of the team is to start more traditions. This year on April 2, UWL and UW-River Falls will be joining together to “LaCROSSEe out cancer” in the first annual ‘Bird Bowl’. The teams have already raised $3,000 for the cause.
The Eagles will return to action on Mar. 5 against Illinois Wesleyan University. Their next home game will be Saturday, Mar. 15 against Aurora University.
