ELON, N.C. – After deciding to
return to Elon for a fifth season, women's soccer senior defender
Katie Lowe spoke about how she had unfinished business with the team. Evidently, she had unfinished business with her undergraduate research as well.
Lowe, an exercise science major, is part of the last class for Elon women's soccer able to apply for a fifth year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While competing for the women's soccer team, she has also conducted research alongside mentors Dr. Eric Hall and Dr. Caroline Ketcham for the past two years. In her research, Lowe looked at the relationship between stress, menstrual cycle symptoms and performance and injury, specifically in female athletes.
So, while Lowe was spending this offseason preparing for her last season with the Phoenix, she also decided to submit an application to present her research at the International Olympic Committee Conference in Monaco, not expecting it to amount to much.
"It's a pretty big conference, so we kind of submitted an application thinking it was a little bit of a shot in the dark," Lowe said.
That shot in the dark turned into an opportunity of a lifetime, as Lowe was selected for the seventh International Olympic Committee World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport taking place in Monaco from Feb. 29 to March 2, 2024.
"It honestly means so much to me," Lowe said. "I've been doing research for about two years now, and so it's nice to know that all my time that I've put into this has been worth it."
Coming into college, Lowe said she did not plan on doing any undergraduate research, but was thrilled to find out it was something she could pursue at Elon.
"I didn't really think that undergraduate research was something that I could do as a student-athlete, [and I] didn't really know it was something I wanted to do," Lowe said. "Being an Elon College Fellow has been really helpful in integrating undergraduate research into my Elon experience."
Lowe added that it has been extra special for her to be able to share this experience with her teammates, whose saliva samples were used for analysis in her project.
"It's also been awesome to have my teammates be a part of this," Lowe said. "They are my participants in everything that I've done, which has made it easier. I have been able to do stuff before and after practice. It has also kind of put a little personal spin on it because I get to hopefully implement what we've learned, our results and conclusions, into our team, into the injury prevention on our team and also just improving performance."
She also credited her coach, Neil Payne, in being supportive of her throughout her entire research process.
"He is very interested in implementing what we are able to learn from this, which I think will just help our team to improve practice, games and preparation," Lowe said.
Lowe, who thought she was just about done with her research prior to being accepted to the IOC World Conference to present her findings, still has a bit more planned with her research this spring.
"I've done pretty much the bulk of my research so far," Lowe said. "The next step would just be to present at SURF day here at Elon and then also write a thesis. But other than that, I think this is kind of the ending for it."
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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