Blowing teams out is good. Beating them in close games is even better. Hamline’s women’s lacrosse team has done both so far this season as they have raced out to a 3-1 record in their inaugural season in the Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference.

Hamline’s women’s lacrosse team dominated on their home game against Cornell last Saturday, winning with plenty of room for error with a 15 point lead at 17 to 2. Sunday the girls played Dubuque, who they were able to beat 8 to 3. In the coming weeks, the lacrosse team will have their weekends full traveling to Illinois for games against Illinois Tech and Concordia (Ill.) Mar. 18 and 19 and with back to back home games the following week as well.

Hamline’s lacrosse team has just four seniors on the team this season, and they have lots of depth to augment the players on their final season.

Keeping up with her busy lacrosse schedule as well as preparing to graduate, senior defender Sarah Campbell has been dedicated to her team since she started Hamline as a first-year. Although she began playing lacrosse at Hamline while the program was a club sport, she was named a captain of the club her sophomore year, and then again for the varsity team her senior year.

When the head coach Karen Heggernes started two years ago and began the transition towards official competition with the lacrosse team, she was quick to recruit the girls who had played on the club team because of their passion for the sport. Campbell was one of her recruits.

“Sarah is a very hard worker, both on and off the field,” Heggernes said. “She is also a very analytical player which has made her a good leader. Sarah leads by example and always steps up which has made her a very good senior captain.”

Campbell is not new to the lacrosse scene, as she played all four years on her high school team as a defender. She played for a few years as a midfielder when she first arrived at Hamline before requesting to be put back on defense, where she says she feels more comfortable.

Other than lacrosse, Campbell is working to finish up her academic career here at Hamline. She is completing a Communications and Spanish major, along with holding a full time internship at HealthPartners in Bloomington in their marketing department.

As a sophomore and then again this year Campbell worked for Hamline as a new student mentor. The first year seminar that she mentored this year had a large number of athletes which she said was nice—providing a large group receptive to her interests and advice.

Being a student athlete has proved to be challenging for Sarah but not something she was unable to accomplish.

“I think being an athlete for all of my life that I really learned time management,” Campbell said. “This year my first year seminar was largely athletes, so it was nice to relate and be able to give them that advice.”

She had one piece of advice to impart to new students, specifically student athletes.

“Know that athletics in college [requires] sacrifice and you will have to give things up,” Campbell said, “but ultimately remember why you love the sport and that will help you through the hard times. On the lacrosse team we call it ‘knowing your why,’ and that has been my theme throughout my four years.”

The lacrosse team travels down to Illinois for two games there this weekend. Their next home games take place Mar. 25 and 26 against Benedictine and Aurora, respectively. The Saturday home game will begin at 1:00 p.m., with the game on Mar. 26 tipping off at 2:00 p.m. Game times for the Illinois games are listed opposite in the events calendar.