Leora Owings picked up lacrosse after her nine years of soccer had come to an end. She mentioned the coach of her seventh grade Medina Bees team helped build her base in the sport.
“It’s’ just the controllables that you can control. You might not have the best stick skills on the team, but you can hustle and play defense,” Owings said.
She lettered four times in lacrosse at Medina High School. Her career in Medina, Ohio included All-Ohio honors and a conference player of the year award.
When Owings discovered The Rock, she mentioned loving “the community and family aspect” of Slippery Rock on top of having a competitive Division II lacrosse program.
Current SRU head coach Taryn Burkholder was an assistant coach at the time of some of Owings’ recruiting. Burkholder also had an impact on Owings’ decision.
“She was always supporting me when I was getting recruited. She came to my games and everything. I just felt really supported by her as I was getting recruited.”
Still, the midfielder understood coming to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) would not be an easy transition.
“I knew coming in D2 is very competitive, let alone in the PSAC, which is one of the most competitive conferences for Division II athletes for lacrosse,” Owings said.
Still, it did not take long for her skills to translate. Owings made 15 starts in her first year with the White and Green, being named to the All-PSAC West second team after scoring 13 goals, notching seven assists and forcing 15 turnovers.
“I was not expecting that, but I was just there to do whatever the team needed me to do at that point,” Owings said.
After such a successful start to her collegiate career, her second year was derailed by an ACL injury. Owings had to miss the entire 2024 season.
“It was tough for sure, especially coming off such a successful season, but at that point you just have to focus on recovering and doing what you can for the team because I can’t be there on the field physically,” Owings said. “I just had to try to be a hype man and learn as much as I can from watching.”
She mentioned an ACL tear being, “an athlete’s worst nightmare almost,” but that she would not have wanted to do her recovery anywhere else.
“It was a good process,” Owings said. “I got my surgery back at home in Medina but most of my recovery was done here with our AT, Molly [Parsons].”
Parsons is a certified athletic trainer for The Rock’s field hockey and lacrosse teams. In addition to Parsons and the team as a whole, Eryn Little had a big impact. Little, now a senior, has been with the program for Owings’ entire tenure.
“My team was just super supportive,” Owings said. “It was just so supportive that I wasn’t really in a negative headspace a lot of the time.”
After no game action with The Rock for a year, it was not certain if Owings would immediately be able to return to form. Yet, like seemingly every other time she had to make a transition in her career, her skills still translated to the field.
In her return to action, Owings has been a key part of The Rock’s scorching start to 2025. Three games in, The White and Green remain undefeated and are averaging 15 goals per game.
SRU’s most impressive win is likely their most recent, a 12-6 victory over No. 9 East Stroudsburg University. Owings found the back of the net twice in the game, which was somehow a dip in production as she opened the year with back-to-back four-goal performances.
“I’m nervous obviously, because I’m coming back but I’m not really thinking about, ‘oh this is my second goal, third goal, fourth,’ I’m just thinking whatever is going to keep us going and keep us ahead at that time.”
She is within the top 10 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in total goals scored and goals per game. Her 10 goals lead The Rock’s scoring.
Her 80% shot-on-goal percentage was second to only Ida Modin among Rock players with over 20 points that season.
With her return, she is still remembering some of the things she learned during her early playing days at Medina.
“If you lose the ball, you’re getting the ball back,” Owings said. “If I’m turning the ball over or whatever happens, I’m busting my butt to get it back because I need to help my team.”
While they are off to just about as good a start as anyone could hope for, with an early 3-0 record and a win against a top-10 ranked team, there is still a lot of season left for The Rock lacrosse.
“I just am really excited for the rest of the season because I think coming off such a huge season last year, even though we lost a lot of girls, we gained so many people that are growing in confidence.” Owings said. “Everyone has each others’ backs which helps us play as a whole team rather than individually.”
“Everyone trusts everyone, and we are friends off the field as well, so I am just really excited to continue growing, and go on the spring break trip and everything leading forward into PSACs,” Owings said.
