At the age of 10, Laura Ziegler picked up a basketball and it stuck. By around 13 or 14, she knew she wanted to play at the collegiate level.
Now, she leads the NCAA with 10 defensive rebounds a game, has recorded 17 double-doubles on the season, two triple-doubles, and has been named to the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Ann Myers Award Midseason Watch List. She also has the women’s basketball program record for most points per game, after putting up 43 against Loyola Chicago Feb. 9. All of this and more while only being a junior.
“I don’t think that much about it when I’m actually in the season,” Ziegler said. “As an athlete, and as a competitor, you just always want to win games. You look at it after if you won, great, if you didn’t win, then I didn’t do well enough. So, I’m glad I’m playing well because it’s helping the team win games.”
Hailing from Herlev, Denmark, Ziegler joined the team in 2022. She impacted the team immediately by winning the Atlantic 10 (A-10) Rookie of the Year and tying the St. Joe’s Women’s Basketball first-year rebound record (271). During her sophomore campaign, she started in all 31 of her appearances while finishing 11th in the nation in defensive rebounds, averaging 7.8 a game.
However, despite the previous seasons, the only thing on Ziegler’s mind for the 2024-2025 season was winning games, raising an A-10 championship banner and earning a shot to compete in the Big Dance.
“I was really grateful for everything we achieved last season,” Ziegler said. “As a team, the individual accolades I got. I appreciate that a lot, but I also have the mindset that everything that happened last season doesn’t really count this season. No one was looking at what we did last year and is giving us an NCAA bid. The main focus is just trying to put us in the best position possible for the A-10 tournament.”
With last season in the past, Ziegler and the team keep their focus on the current season with the goals they set during the pre-season.
“In the beginning of the season, we have a meeting with her [head coach Cindy Griffin],” Ziegler said. “When we sit down, we have to fill out the sheet about our academic goals, our individual goals and team goals. And all of us wanted to win an A-10 championship. We wanted to play in the postseason, and we wanted to play in the NCAA tournament.”
According to Griffin, it seems like Ziegler’s play will continue because complacency is not in Ziegler’s vocabulary, nor is it in the vocabulary of the other leaders on the team. Griffin says she does not need to motivate Ziegler and the other team leaders because they push themselves and their teammates.
“They’re just very self-motivated, and they have a high work rate, high work ethic. They set a great example for the other players. They go hard and practice every day. They show up every day,” Griffin said. “Their personalities are such that you would never know if they had a bad day. They approach every day the same, whether they’re coming off a great game or a not-so-great game, or whether they’re feeling sick or feeling great.”
This lack of complacency helps the team grow toward achieving their goals, along with their focus on staying in the present. This mindset of focusing on the now stems directly from Griffin and her coaching staff.
“It’s really just keeping things in perspective,” Griffin said. “We have little goals that we have every day in practice, and we always preach doing the little things. Doing the little things right will add up to big things when the time comes.”
With this success, the team faces increased attention and pressure to perform. Yet, this outside noise does not play a role in how the team attacks each practice and game.
“We try to approach every day as being where our feet are,” Mackenzie Smith, a senior guard on the team, said. “We can only control what we can control, and that’s how we play. That’s how we play defense, offensively as well, just being where our feet are, not worried about the outside noise.”
With six games left in the regular season, Ziegler, Smith and the rest of the team look to continue to win games and be successful in the postseason. They believe that embodying the core values of their team will allow them to do this.
“What pops into my mind first is selfless and relentless,” Smith said. “We say those words every day. It truly is a part of who we are. Whether it’s selflessly giving up a good shot for a great shot, or relentlessly keeping people out of the middle of the floor or diving on the floor for loose balls, we try to use those words as descriptive words for what we’re trying to do.”
While they are focused on the current season, next season still looms. The team must address the loss of the graduating seniors, including Smith and senior Talya Brugler, who impact the team through their play and leadership. However, the team does not seem phased for their play style, and the legacy of the graduating seniors will remain.
“If I know coach Cindy, I know one of [the focuses] is going to be playing defense,” Ziegler said. “That’s always been one of the things, no matter the team we have. We take a lot of pride in our defense. She always says when we go on road trips, the two things to travel with is defense and rebounds. That’s where we play, whenever we play. That’s something that always stays the same.”
