Allie Vangas has been playing lacrosse ever since she was in the fourth grade and hasn’t stopped. She hasn’t played any other sport and couldn’t imagine playing anything else.
Coming from Cornwall, New York, Vangas was recruited by PSUC head coach Julia Decker.
“When I first saw [Vangas] she was really skilled a hard worker,” Decker said. “She just had a lot of heart.”
Vangas is a freshman who plays as an attacker/ midfielder and right away she was voted in as captain of her team by her teammates.
“I fell in love with the school the first time I came here. The first year program was a selling point for me and being put in a position where I am captain was kind of scary not gonna lie,” Vangas said. “I was not expecting it. I have never been a captain. My senior year, it was weird because I was kind of a captain, but I have never had that title of being captain.So to have that title was kind of scary because I have been doing it but I never had the pressure.”
Vangas heard about the program through her travel team coach. She was told about Plattsburgh starting its own women’s lacrosse program after constant communication between her and coach Decker. After visiting the campus, she fully committed to PSUC over two other schools.
Coming into the season, Vangas knew success was not going to be measured by the team’s record. Success was going to be measured how much better the team got every day and how they learned to play with each other.
“My expectations for our first year were to get better. With this being a first year team, our record was not going to tell the full story. I was really excited to work with a group of girls and see what our competition is for the next three years and what kind of conference we are in,” Vangas said. “it was nice the teams in our conference are good and it is going to be great competition once we get a solid group of girls.”
The transition from highschool to college level play is never easy for an athlete. The level of play is different. Finding the right fit into the system and competition can all be factors for anyone making that transition, but for Allie, she figured out fairly quickly where she belonged.
“I think it was fairly seamless,” Decker said. “There is always an adjustment for everyone no matter who it is with the pace of play and the rules are different that makes the game go so much quicker. And for Allie, she played midfield in high school and for half the time on her club team. With her having that experience was nice for us on our team because we can have her anywhere on the field and we were able to put her on attack and that is where she found her niche.”
With Vangas being a first year student and having that leadership role, she still wants to perfect her game and get better each game to help her team win.
“I wanna work on my footwork more,” Vangas said. “I’ve learned that girls in this conference are really quick, and I work on my stick work and also work on my shooting. I have been working on that more recently. “
Decker had some few words on what it has been like coaching Vangas.
“Allie is awesome. She has such a great attitude all the time,” Decker said. “She is really positive every day. She is really bubbly and friendly, she’s a great teammate, she works hard, has a ton of heart all the time. You can tell she cares about everyone and she is passionate about lacrosse.”
