At first, it looked like shortstop Audrey Lacina was just out sick with a stomach bug. But what held her out went far deeper – so deep that it nearly killed her a couple of years ago.

“I couldn’t take a sip of water,” Lacina said. “Think of a plastic water cap, 
if you filled that with water, if I tried to sip it, it would not stay down. I definitely could have died.”

Lacina, who has now blossomed in her sophomore year into a key piece for the Wildcats with her magnetic personality and cannon of an arm, had a major setback in her high school years.

This week, the lingering effects of that past challenge became apparent as she battled a common stomach bug.

During her sophomore year in high school, Lacina was diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome (SMAS), an extremely rare and potentially fatal condition in which the third part of the small intestine gets pinched between two big blood vessels – the Superior Mesenteric Artery and the Abdominal Aorta – causing a blockage.

And it is so rare that the diagnosis is not straightforward as only 0.1-0.3% of people in the United States are diagnosed.

“It was a fight,” Lacina said. “Doctors kept on attempting to inform me that it was an eating disorder or something else. I actually had a brain scan at one point. No one ever believed me until I took a doctor and showed him exactly what happened when I attempted to eat or drink.”

Audrey Lacina, holds softball after a game, with feeding tube in nose. (Photo courtesy of Audrey Lacina)

That led her to Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital and celebrated surgeon Dr. Shawn St. Peter, whom she credits with saving her life. 

Dr. St. Peter did an innovative surgery that involved cutting out some of her intestines while re-routing many other things, which would be the third surgery, of this kind ever done, never successful. 

Until Audrey.

“The second surgery was brutal,” Lacina said. “I was in the hospital almost the entire month of December. I had two tubes running down my nose, but March 31, 2022, was the first day I could eat and drink without hurting. It was my first healthy day in two years.”

Despite hospital visits and around-the-clock struggles, Lacina never gave up softball.

Although her interest in “dream schools,” as she said vanished, she stayed on the field—thanks to her love for the game and a need to be normal.

“Softball was the one thing I still had,” Lacina said. 

But that’s where ACU came in, thanks in large part to her closest friend and longtime teammate Ella Beeman, who is now a Wildcat pitcher.

“When I was finally healthy, and they saw what I could do, they offered me the scholarship, and I couldn’t deny it,” Lacina said.

Now completely healthy, Lacina is one of the team’s anchors. While she started as a catcher, she practiced giving shortstop a try during her summer at home workouts in an attempt to assure no roster spot holes and to learn something new.

She’s been there ever since.

“Koons bought me two gloves—one catching, one shortstop—and after the first game, I never went back,” Lacina said.

And Head Coach Jo Koons seconded this.

“Audrey has stepped up,” Koons said. “Audrey has done a great job at shortstop, just learning and growing every day. That’s most important as an athlete, doing your best to get better each and every opportunity you have.”

And with every play she makes, it’s grounded in a perspective most athletes her age don’t have.

“I wake up and I’m thankful,” Lacina said. “Just to open my eyes. Just to drink coffee. Just to run and throw and play.”

Lacina’s journey from hospital beds and feeding tubes to highlight-reel throws and clutch hits is more than inspiring – to her and others it serves as a reminder of resilience, faith, and joy in the face of fear.

“I was at my lowest in life at this time,” Lacina said. “I can only give credit to the Lord for true joy. The kind of pleasure only God can provide.”