Lowry looking for redemption

By Matt McGovern, assistant sports editor
Posted on September 13, 2007

James Madison senior forward Annie Lowry is enjoying the Dukes’ first 5-0 start one year after starting the season 0-5. Madison travels for its sixth contest Friday at Penn State — one of the main schools that competed with JMU for Pennsylvania native Lowry and her commitment. So how did she get here?

“I was actually planning on going to Penn State,” Lowry said. “[Then I] came down here, saw the campus, met the girls and I was sold.”

Growing up in Pennsylvania, she played for the Olympic Development Program of Pennsylvania in addition to her high school team. Lowry started her JMU career as a freshman in the fall of 2004, and has won all-conference honors her last two seasons.

The Dukes have not won a conference title since 2002, and last year Madison fell just short of the CAA crown in the championship game. Last season’s disappointment was an excruciating loss to ODU in double overtime.

“We had so many injuries in the beginning of the year [and] we were 0-5, the exact opposite of this year,” Lowry said. “Players [were] playing in different positions, we were all out of alignment. We came in and we knew we had to win seven out of our last eight games — we did that. To come that close and not get it was very bittersweet.”

Lowry had eight goals and six assists for the Dukes last year, and is joined by Kimmy Germain and Teri Maykoski as all-conference veterans on a JMU squad that is loaded with depth. This season’s version of the Dukes has the experience to deal with adversity and the bench players to surprise opponents with different looks. 

“It’s not just our starting 11 who are going out and getting the job done,” Lowry said. “A lot of people are scoring off the bench, and that’s one of our strengths.”

Madison’s depth addresses the problem injuries can present. Lowry has experience with those; two years ago she tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament in a collision and missed the beginning of the 2006 season as a result. It has only intensified her competitiveness on the field.

When asked if she ever flashes back to the memory of that incident, Lowry said, “If you think about it like that, then you are going to get hurt again. So the way I think about it is go in as hard as you can and things will happen as they happen.”

Lowry competed in basketball, tennis, swimming and dance before she gave them all up for  the pitch. Now she has one year to fulfill her goals at the0 collegiate level, and she feels confident that a CAA championship is within reach.

In addition to her athletic accomplishments, Lowry was recognized in 2007 as JMU’s Female Scholar Athlete of the Year. This year she would like to help Madison accomplish its team goals.

“Things bounce your way sometimes, and sometimes they don’t,” Lowry said. “So this year we’re going to make it bounce our way.”