Women’s Lacrosse Team Members will participate in NE10 Conference-Wide Morgan’s Message Day

AIC is proud to participate in Morgan’s Message Day on Wednesday, April 12th. Women’s lacrosse student-athletes from all ten Northeast-10 Conference (NE10) teams will come together to support the organization, which advocates for the mental health of student-athletes.

AIC will host Southern New Hampshire University, Assumption University will play against Franklin Pierce University, and Le Moyne College will play against Saint Anselm College. The College of Saint Rose will play against Adelphi University, and Saint Michael's College will play against Bentley University. Adelphi’s men’s lacrosse team will also participate immediately following the women’s game.

Morgan's Message was created by the family and former teammates of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke University lacrosse student-athlete who died tragically in July 2019 after battling mental health struggles. The organization’s mission is to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and ensure that mental health and physical health for student-athletes are treated equally. 

The goal of Morgan’s Message Day is to facilitate and encourage conversations around mental health with the hope of ultimately saving lives. According to a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, while nine in ten Americans say they would do something if they were worried about someone’s mental health, only a third say they are willing to talk about it with others.

“There is a perception that if someone is seeking help [for mental health], they are weak; however, that is not the case,” said AIC senior defender Lauren Smithers, one of the College’s Morgan’s Message Ambassadors. “There should be as much emphasis on mental health as on our physical health. It's okay not to be okay. You are not alone. There's an entire community ready to support one another. Let's continue [working] to end the stigma.”

The NE10 is an association of 13 diverse institutions serving student-athletes across 24 NCAA Division II sports. Each year, 4,500 student-athletes compete in conference championships in twenty-four sports, making the NE10 the largest DII conference in the country for sports sponsorship.