Austin Peay, Melissa Rausch Brimming with Excitement for Inaugural Year

Melissa Rausch made a statement when Austin Peay announced her as its first-ever head coach in July, and not just the one included in the press release thanking university brass for the opportunity. 

The wide-brimmed, black hat she wore in the graphic included with the release was a departure from the trucker and baseball caps often seen on lacrosse sidelines.

“I have a background in sports management, and on game days, you get dressed up,” Rausch said. “I feel the same way [as a coach]. You’re not going to find me in sweats. I’m not going to be in a full suit, but I’m at least going to go business casual. I don’t want the sun in my face, so I wear big hats. I hope it shows my players that game day is a big day, and I come dressed for that.”

Last summer, Rausch was lining up her recruits (and hats) for another season as the head coach at UC Colorado Springs, a post she’d held since 2022.

“I actually went to a custom hat maker two weeks before I came here and paid an exorbitant amount of money to have a custom 'UCCS Lacrosse' hat made for me for that coming year,” Rausch said.

Now Rausch is instead set to lead Austin Peay onto the field in February, when the Governors will be the first Tennessee public institution to compete at the Division I level in lacrosse.

She doesn’t have buyer’s remorse. If anything, she’s used to pivoting between the many hats she wears, especially in the figurative sense. Before UCCS, Rausch served as the assistant director of athletics, head women’s lacrosse coach and assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Nichols College.

Building a program has Rausch returning to her roots. She started club programs in Worcester and Colorado Springs. But reeling Rausch in from the Rocky Mountain State was a steep hill for Austin Peay to climb.

“I was not ready to leave UCCS,” Rausch said. “I loved it there and the life we had built there. I got a phone call from a person who was hired by the university to fill this role, and he basically had to beg me to be interested.”

Yet after speaking with now-interim athletics director Jordan Harman, Rausch found herself impressed by his passion for developing a lacrosse culture in a non-traditional market.

“That’s always been my passion — to really help grow the game,” Rausch said. “I had the opportunity here for a university that just really believes in, as they say, their people. [Austin Peay] is dedicated to building this program knowing that we’re in a market that — I mean — if there’s 30 girls playing lacrosse in Clarksville right now, I’d be shocked.”

Game on, and challenge accepted — with a new hat in hand. Rausch had to look outside of Tennessee’s borders to find players who could fill the roster and help her fulfill a larger goal to “help this area fall in love with the sport.” 

Time was not on her side.

“I got hired in July [2024], and as most people know, the recruiting timeline is pretty much over for juniors,” Rausch said. “They’re pretty much all committed at that point. I had to build a team not knowing what I would find in the transfer portal. My goal at the time was to have 20 people who were good enough to play at this level.”

To do that, Rausch needed boots on the ground, which meant taking more than 100 flights across the U.S. and Canada. She packed to dress to impress.

“I truly just dove in headfirst and was like, ‘I’m going to do it right,’” Rausch said. “That required me to make sure that I was everywhere at all times, finding 20 people and players, and also the marketing behind it. Nobody knew Austin Peay, so I made sure that I had the hat, the coat.”

Rausch didn’t leave the Tennessee community behind. She told Tennesseans she wanted build a lacrosse culture in the state. She went to club directors and practices to tell the Austin Peay story and sell the vision.

Rausch also didn’t count out the transfer portal, which is where she found Lauryn Warfield. A Maryland native, Warfield committed to Winthrop for soccer and lacrosse during the pandemic and later transferred to UMBC to be closer to home. 

Growing up in a lacrosse hotbed, Warfield doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t have a stick in her hand. She loved soccer, but it was lacrosse she just couldn’t quit. And like Rausch, she relished the chance to bring the sport’s joy to uncharted territory.

“Since I’m from Maryland, I get opportunities that most people don’t get,” Warfield said. “This is an area that doesn’t have those opportunities, so I feel it’s super important for me to grow that. When I was 12 years old, I looked up to so many different players. I want to be that person that people in Tennessee can look up to.”

Warfield is digging into coaching and mentoring youth boys and girls.

“Most of them don’t know what a stick is or the parts of a stick,” Warfield said.

She’ll soon have an opportunity to do more showing than telling. Warfield should be a significant piece of the Governors’ offense and draw unit starting with the program’s inaugural game on Feb. 7 at home against Gardner-Webb.

“Lauren has not only shown up on the scoreboard as far as draw controls and scoring goals, but she’s also directing traffic,” Rausch said. “When you have a team that has never played together, you need somebody on the field who can help them through things, and that is something that Lauren has just done a tremendous job with.”

Senior Mak Patten (St. Francis) and redshirt sophomore Emily Jannetty (Campbell) will fill low attack spots and be threats from X. Freshmen Fiona Lemke and Samantha Poe have a knack for finding the back of the net and moving the ball.

Rausch said the defense has a “solid core” that includes Detroit Mercy transfer and sophomore Madison Klamo.

“She’s just fierce, fast and one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met,” Rausch said.

Sophomore Elyse Faler complements Klamo, providing a steady presence. It lets Klamo push the tempo while Faler, as Rausch put it, “Stays home and gets everybody in — the two of them are opposites but work amazingly together.”

Sophomore Erin-Kate Roeder (UMass-Lowell) is the likely starter in the cage.

“She’s been absolutely crushing every aspect of that, being an amazing leader to our two freshmen goalies,” Rausch said. “She’s that goalie you know is going to step up when the time comes, and you’re not going to worry about it.”

Not having to worry about Roeder frees up headspace for Rausch to look ahead for Austin Peay’s inaugural game. Getting a win is one goal, but she’s also building a foundation for the long haul.

“I call [my pillars] the three Cs,” Rausch said. “The first one is a championship. I want to win. There’s no two ways about it. I am competitive. We want to have a winning record and to win at home. Our second pillar is in the classroom, and I want to crush it there, and we want to be a distinct part of the community. We want people to come and see the sport we love and for them to love it.”

Will they also see Rausch in one of her capital “C” creative hats? You bet, though she’s not tipping her hand as to what she’ll sport for game one.

“I’m actually in talks with a local hat company [and] quite possibly do a sponsorship, or at least for Feb. 7, our inaugural game to have a custom hat made,” Rausch said. “So, for sure, I will have one, but I don’t have it yet.”

Either way, Austin Peay will make a statement — and Tennessee history — and that’s worthy of a hat tip.