College second-year and women’s lacrosse attacker Audrey Koren has made it no secret that she’s playing to win. Only three games into the season, Koren was responsible for five goals this past Saturday and two goals this past Sunday. This is Koren’s first full lacrosse season, last year the team played four spring games. Outside of athletics, she is exploring various passions at Oberlin including classes in Neuroscience and Hispanic Studies. This summer, she’ll be working in a neuroscience research lab at Stanford University. 

How long have you played lacrosse? 

I think it’s been 11 years now, I started right when I was turning 8 years old. 

Why did you choose Oberlin? 

For as long as I can remember, I really wanted to play lacrosse in college. When I was younger, I had a big university mentality, but then in high school I started looking at smaller schools, and I recognized how liberal arts schools have a perfect balance of having small class sizes, ability to have relationships with professors, research opportunities, and athletics. Also, fourth-year and midfielder Annie Payne went to my high school and we were teammates. When she went to Oberlin, I decided to look as well. When I visited, I fell in love with the school. 

How does it feel to have your first full collegiate season? 

It’s been really fun and special. We were so fortunate last year to get those four games and it was a bit of a teaser for myself and everyone else on the team. I think it made us hungry, excited, and eager to put in the work for the full season. It’s definitely made us appreciate every little moment more because we know what it’s like not to have it. Overall, it made us work harder and motivated us a lot. 

You’ve had an amazing season thus far, what do you attribute your success to? 

Honestly, my team, our overall work ethic during practice, and the support system we’ve built. Our coaches help run an offense where everybody gets a moment to shine and we’ve learned how to create those moments for every person. And then there’s the comradery that we have on the team; we’re all best friends and a big family. We wouldn’t feel comfortable trying different things in games if we didn’t know that we had our teammates to back us up if a mistake happens. 

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season?

Our team has a great potential to go really far in the league. Right now we’re ranked fourth, but I think that we will get even better and work to be ranked higher. The goals are to win the league and go to the tournament afterward. So I’m excited about our potential, to spend more time with my team, and just be a new Oberlin lacrosse player. I think that this is the best team that Oberlin has ever had and it’s also the youngest team, which is exciting. We have great leadership from our older players and our younger players have an incredible skill set. That’s exciting for a lot of us because these past games have been the first collegiate games that we’ve really played in. So as we get more experience and the older players get back into the groove after not playing for so long, I think we’re going to have a winning season and hopefully set some records. 

Outside of lacrosse, what are you interested in? 

I’m a Neuroscience major and Hispanic Studies minor on the pre-med track, so most of my time is spent on school and lacrosse. I’m also a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative. I’ve also recently gotten involved with the One Love Foundation, and I’m now a school ambassador for them. The program focuses on spreading awareness about healthy and unhealthy relationships and different steps to take. I’m looking forward to getting involved with research in the future and studying abroad next fall in Spain to finish up my Hispanic Studies minor.