Christopher Dacanay
Sports Editor
Rose Kane is a junior who transferred to Franciscan University of Steubenville in the Fall 2021. That radical change of scenery was a lot to take in.
Attending a new school is hard enough, but it’s even tougher for Kane because she has the added pressure of being the only goalie on the Lady Barons lacrosse team.
“(Being a goalie) can be physically challenging,” Kane said, “but a lot of it is mental because it’s all about staying positive and knowing you’re not going to save every shot. If you have a bad mentality going into a game … you’re not going to do good.
“I’m trying to just get in goal and to see what happens.”
Because she is the only goalie, Kane is not sure what the team would do if she were injured.
“They’d probably put one of the other players on our team in goal and kind of warm her up, but hopefully I don’t get injured; that would be bad,” she said.
Majoring in marketing, Kane is originally from Binghamton, New York. She received an associate’s degree in liberal arts from SUNY Broome Community College before transferring to Franciscan.
Kane is no newbie to lacrosse; she has been playing since elementary school.
Kane has six siblings; her brothers and older sister played lacrosse, which introduced her to the sport. Also, Kane has a twin sister who is a senior playing lacrosse at St. Mary’s College in Indiana.
“It was a family sport thing,” Kane said, “and I learned to love it.”
Kane started by “playing rough” on the boys’ lacrosse because her elementary school did not have a girls’ lacrosse team. When she moved up to middle school, she joined the girls’ team.
A program called Little Saints Lacrosse allowed high schoolers to teach Kane and the younger girls how to play. Later, in high school, Kane herself became a mentor for the Little Saints.
“Oh my gosh,” Kane said, “it was so cute to see them run around the field with their sticks; it was so funny.”
Kane’s community college did not have a lacrosse team, so playing with the Lady Barons was Kane’s first time playing the sport in about four years. Kane admits that she has a lot of catching up to do as the season begins.
Training for the team began in the fall, Kane said, and she was nervous about finding her place on the team. In spite of the challenge, she said “the experience has been great.”
“It’s been really fun,” she said. “I love my team; I think we work really well together. Everyone on the team is very supportive.”
This season, the Lady Barons are 3-2; their wins have been big, the largest score gap so far being 22-2 against La Roche University. In that game, she had a .750 save percentage; anything above .600 is considered very good.
Kane’s favorite aspect of the team is the people. The team spent a lot of spring break together practicing, Kane said, and they all had a great time being together 24/7.
Apart from lacrosse, Kane said she enjoys walking, hanging out with friends, being social and sleeping.
Kane first learned of Franciscan from another transfer student and through her parents’ awareness of the conferences. The small community and shared values of the university have been a joy to Kane since she transferred.
Faith has been a major aspect of Kane’s life since childhood, which she credits to her parents. The environment at Franciscan has allowed that aspect to thrive.
“Since coming here, I’ve learned so much more about my faith,” she said. “(Franciscan has) shown me how incorporated our faith can be in our daily lives.”
Currently, Kane is focusing on lacrosse, but she hopes to get more involved on campus during the semesters to come. This will involve joining clubs and hopefully traveling to Austria.
Kane only just arrived at Franciscan, and she has merely scratched the surface of all the things she will accomplish here — both for the lacrosse team and otherwise.
She said, “I’m just grateful that I’m able to play lacrosse here and to have such a good team, good players (and) good coaches; I’m just lucky, I guess.”