Photo captured during ESPN+ broadcast
Congratulatory text messages bombarded the cell phone of Parkway West alum Lauren Ottensmeyer as she awoke from a peaceful sleep at the University of Cincinnati.
“I was so confused,” Ottensmeyer recalled. “I was like, ‘What are they talking about?’”
USA Lacrosse selected Ottensmeyer to its All-American-Honorable Mention team in recognition of her outstanding 2024 season. She joined teammate Camryn Callaghan as the first players from the Bearcats’ women’s lacrosse program to receive All-American honors.
Ottensmeyer led Cincinnati with 57 goals, third most in school history, and her 3.35 goals per game ranked fourth in the American Athletic Conference.
“It means a lot to me,” Ottensmeyer said. “Being from Missouri, it’s easy to feel alone in the sport sometimes. It’s easy to feel small and under the radar. I’m very proud of where I’ve gotten in lacrosse.”
Her journey to national recognition required courage and resiliency.
Ottensmeyer began playing lacrosse in eighth grade and earned a spot on the Parkway West varsity team as a freshman. She scored 53 goals as a sophomore and continued to improve each week.
“There was this underlying drive I had with lacrosse. I put in a ton of work on my own, tons of wall ball, tons of shooting, anything I could do to get better, and I’m still doing it,” she said.
It appeared nothing could stand in the way of Ottensmeyer’s pursuit of the Missouri record for goals in a season during a storybook junior year. The Parkway West attacker notched her record-tying, 116th goal during a playoff matchup against John Burroughs, but the storybook soon devolved into a horror flick.
With eight seconds remaining in the first half, a misunderstanding while positioning herself in the draw circle resulted in a second yellow card, and Ottensmeyer was ejected from the game.
”I think the official thought I was trying to give attitude,” Ottensmeyer recalled. “I was a hothead player, and I probably would have in another circumstance, but at that point, I genuinely wasn’t. I was just confused.”
Parkway West lost the game, and when the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating disqualification became her final memory as a high school player.
“That gave me so much more drive when I got to college. I can’t ever get that back. I can’t ever break the record. It’s something I hold onto a lot – the fact that I tied it when I feel that I could have broken it,” she said.
*(In 2022, Paige Rawitscher of Clayton surpassed the Missouri single-season record for goals, which now stands at 124).
Originally, Ottensmeyer did not intend to play college lacrosse, but she was offered a scholarship by Youngstown State, a school moving into Division 1 athletics and starting a brand-new women’s lacrosse program.
“It was really cool to be the first team. Everything was new to everyone,” she said.
Ottensmeyer played six games for the Penguins before a shin fracture ended her freshman season. Sickness and injuries plagued her sophomore year and she struggled to earn playing time. She credits then-Youngstown State head coach Theresa Walton for helping her navigate a difficult time.
“(Coach Walton) was a big reason I loved it there. She kept me going mentally and held me together my sophomore year,” Ottensmeyer said.
When Walton took a head coaching job at Old Dominion University, Ottensmeyer considered transferring, but she returned to Youngstown for her junior year, moved into her apartment and participated in scrimmages.
“I came back and I was going to give it a chance, but I thought, ‘No, I’m going to enter the (transfer) portal,” Ottensmeyer said. “Originally, I wanted to go to Old Dominion, but then Cincinnati reached out.”
In less than a week, Ottensmeyer entered the transfer portal, committed to the Bearcats, unenrolled at Youngstown State and moved into housing at the University of Cincinnati.
“It was crazy. I just uprooted my life and was living in a different city in a few days,” she said. “Any change is hard, and it was hard for a while, but I got used to it.”
Ottensmeyer ate at the same Subway restaurant for four consecutive days until she figured out her surroundings. In the locker room, she was amazed at the ease in which her new Cincinnati teammates spoke of their well-known opponents.
“I was kind of intimidated. There were girls talking about the game they played against Florida like it was nothing, and I was like, ‘You mean the Florida Gators?’” Ottensmeyer recalled.
But the tougher the competition, the better Ottensmeyer performed. She scored 39 goals in her first season as a Bearcat and then exploded for 57 goals last season, including six-goal outbursts against Ohio State and Louisville.
“When our starting lineup is announced, it’s players from New Jersey, Florida and all these coastal places, and I’m just a girl from Ballwin, Missouri,” Ottensmeyer said. “I’ve really dug into the gratefulness that Cincinnati took a chance on me.”
And she will have an additional year to show her appreciation.
By playing in only six games during her freshman season at Youngstown State, Ottensmeyer qualified for a medical redshirt and was granted an extra year of eligibility, which she will utilize during the 2024-25 season. Had she played in a seventh game, she would not have qualified.
“I think about that a lot. I wanted to play in that (seventh) game, my coaches wanted me to play in it, but the doctor said, ‘No,’” Ottensmeyer recalled. “Now, I’ll get the COVID year back in a better way.”
Ottensmeyer is finishing a busy summer spent on fields across St. Louis, where she administered private lessons and taught group sessions to the next generation of lacrosse players.
“There’s so much potential here. I want to help lacrosse grow and get these girls noticed more,” she said.
During her own roller coaster path to All-American recognition, she learned to appreciate the twists and turns along the way.
“There’s not one thing on my lacrosse journey I would change. I needed Youngstown to get college lacrosse experience, and it allowed me to realize that I wanted more from this – to keep growing and to not be content,” Ottensmeyer said.
And for those hoping to play lacrosse at the next level, she offers this advice:
“Insecurity can run through your mind but find what works for you, keep putting the work into it, and eventually, it will come to fruition,” she said.