Alex Ludolph is a senior, forward/midfielder, on the IUPUI women’s soccer team. Throughout her time at IUPUI she has had 5 surgeries in the past 6 years in her soccer career. In Ludolph’s junior season she was only able to play in eight games, but even after her injuries and surgeries she still managed to make the Horizon League Academic Honor roll honoree both semesters.
“My journey at IUPUl looks a lot different than most student athletes,” Ludolph said.
Since coming to IUPUI she has not been able to play a full season healthy, but this season is the first season she has been fully healthy to play substantial minutes. Throughout all of the injuries that Alex has endured she kept a positive mindset and kept looking towards the future.
Coming into the 2022 season, the coaching staff wanted Ludolph to be a part of changing the culture of the program, after dealing with her injuries and surgeries Ludolph knew what it meant to push herself and her teammates to be better.
Ludolph said, “the leadership group and I have focused on changing the culture of the program and I think it is working and all of our work off the field is being translated on the field.”
The work done in changing the program has paid off too, last year the jags were 4-11-3. Now with the help of Ludolph they are 9-3-6 and just beat 3 seed Oakland 2-0 in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament.
Coach Johnson, IUPUI women's soccer coach said, “I think we lack any really big ‘Ego’s this year and that has really helped our group to come together very quickly.”
Now, this season Ludolph is a captain and with the help of the rest of her senior class they think they can do something special this year in the Horizon League Tournament.
Ludolph said, “I think my senior class is really strong and we have been really focused on bringing the team together and being strong leaders and I think our success this season is a reflection of a lot of hard work from the seniors all the way to the freshman.”
Johnson said, “the seniors/leadership group helped to make a lot of changes that had put us in the position we are currently in.”
Ludolph knew that the only way the team was going to be better is if the whole team was on the same page. Ludolph is playing with her friends every time she steps on the field and everyday she brings her and her teammates closer together.
Ludolph said, “My biggest goals are just creating strong relationships on the team and trying to be a good leader on and off the field.”
Ludolph has enjoyed playing soccer with her friends and after she graduates, she plans on going to graduate school to study sustainability or conservation. Ludolph would like to go to school out in California and while being in graduate school, she wants to be a graduate assistant coach for the soccer team for the school that she chooses to go to.
Rashan Nisly is a senior majoring in sports journalism at IUPUI with the intent to pursue broadcasting. He has written for The Campus Citizen since Fall of 2022.
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