Stevenson women’s lacrosse senior midfielder Carly Bowes recently spoke with PressBox about her favorite memories with the Mustangs thus far, the biggest influence on her game growing up and more. Bowes, a native of Valley Lee, Md., scored a program-record 62 goals and earned first-team All-MAC Commonwealth honors in 2019.
PressBox: How did you become interested in lacrosse?
Carly Bowes: Growing up, two of my older siblings, [Matt and Laci], played lacrosse, so I kind of just wanted to do what they did. I followed after them and I started playing and then I started making a lot of friends and all my friends were playing lacrosse, so I really liked it so I just stuck with it. I’m really into sports in general, so I knew I wanted to continue on even after high school, playing college.
PB: Why did you choose to come to Stevenson?
CB: I wanted to play lacrosse, and I knew I wanted to do nursing and I didn’t want to be too far from home. So Stevenson kind of really checked all three of those boxes for me. And then when I did my visits and I met the team and everything, I just liked what they had to offer compared to other schools that I had [gone] and visited. My big thing was being able to play a sport, but also I knew I wanted to get my nursing degree and graduate and pursue that the rest of my life, too.
PB: What are some of your favorite memories at Stevenson so far?
CB: We beat several top-20 teams [last year], which was huge for us. It was definitely a confidence booster and showing us our ability. But last year we also beat Messiah, and we actually had a running clock on them. That was a team in my career at Stevenson we’ve never beat. During my time at Stevenson, that was huge.
PB: What are your long-term goals for after lacrosse?
CB: I definitely would like to be a nurse. Right now, I am hoping to graduate and be a labor-and-delivery nurse. We’ll see how that goes, but right now that is the goal. Eventually at some point I’d like to become a school nurse.
PB: What’s your favorite thing about Stevenson and Owings Mills?
CB: I like the opportunities that surround Owings Mills. We’re not right in Towson or right in the heart of Baltimore, but we’re able to get there, and Owings Mills has just so many things to offer. I live off campus right now with some of my teammates. We live in a neighborhood that is families, just as if I was living at home which I really like. But then I am also able to drive five minutes and be at school and drive another five minutes in a different direction and be in a shopping center. I really like that because at home, I drive 30 minutes to be anywhere.
PB: Who’s your best friend on the team and what’s a story that underscores the friendship you have off the field?
CB: There’s three. There’s Kiely Bunce, Morgan Bateman and Danielle Tempesta. Those three actually were the three lacrosse girls I was placed with freshman year and have been my roommates since freshman year and now we all live off campus in a house together. Even not at lacrosse, like over winter break and over summer break, we do so much together. We definitely created a friendship that is more than just four years of college.
PB: Who are some of the lacrosse players at Stevenson you’ve looked up to early in your career?
CB: One player I really looked up to a lot was Jamie Bittner. She’s in the area of Owings Mills, so she comes back and helps us a lot. But even coming in as a freshman, she was someone who always was reaching out, making sure we knew what was happening or helping us along, but she’s also such a good role model. In lacrosse, she’s always working so hard and is such a good person to look up to. But also, I became close with her because she was a nursing major and she graduated and is now a nurse. I connected with her and looked up to her in both aspects of lacrosse and balancing that with school and becoming a nurse. So I really looked up to her. Last year, a senior was Gabby DiGello. I really looked up to her because when I became a captain last year, she was the lone captain before the other three got added. She’s just such a good leader and sets a good example for what it means to be a student-athlete and a good friend and a good leader and not be just your captain. She was your friend, too, and your teammate. She didn’t set herself apart just because she had the role of captain. She was someone who really helped me with that.
PB: Who was the biggest influence on your game growing up?
CB: Probably my dad, [Matt]. My dad is so into sports, and I am as well. But he will do anything to make any of me or my brothers’ or my sister’s games when we were growing up. He was our No. 1 fan, did whatever in the world he had to to make sure he was giving us whatever we needed for sports or getting us to wherever we needed to go. He was always our biggest advocate and encourager. Really him and my mom, [Cindy].
PB: What advice would you give to young players?
CB: I would say create goals and stick to them. No matter what each day brings, if you can do it work hard every day to be the best you can be.
Photo Credit: Sabina Moran/Stevenson Athletics