Winning is more important than statistics

MEQUON, Wis. – Allison Kurek is a gifted athlete and when watching her on the lacrosse field you may not truly appreciate how good she is because of her consistent and non-flashy play over the past three-plus seasons.

The senior has slowly, but surely obtained nearly every career statistical record possible in program history and is arguably one of the best players to ever wear a Falcons uniform. It becomes evident, nearly immediately, when talking with her that the numbers don't matter because it is more important when the team wins.

Concordia Wisconsin has done its fair share of winning during her career, capturing three-straight Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference regular season titles, two MWLC Tournament Championships and a pair of bids to the NCAA Tournament. They have compiled a 42-20 over record over the past three-plus seasons, which includes a 27-1 record in conference play.

CUWFalcons.com took some time to break down each career record Kurek holds and how she got to this point.

Points: At 217 career points, she is seven better than former outstanding player Sammi (Reiter) Weiser. During Kurek's career, she has scored 167 goals and assisted on 50 markers through 62 career games (3.5 points per game average -  third best in program history). She had 78 points her rookie season, followed by 82 her sophomore year and then had 40 a season ago. This year she has 17 points over the course of five games. Kurek has accumulated at least four points in 17 career games and had a stretch of six games in 2016 where she amassed 38 points.

Goals: With 15:34 to play on Wednesday afternoon she spun to her left, worked her way past a defender and shot to the bottom left corner past Beloit's goalkeeper for the record-setting goal – the 167th of her career. The midfielder has 27 career hat tricks and twice has scored seven in a game during her sophomore year.

Shots attempted and on goal: While she may have taken the most shots in program history at 328, a high percentage of those have been on goal (264), which are both first all-time. The thing with Kurek is that she isn't a player who needs a high volume of shots to be happy because she does so many things on the field. During her career, Kurek has shot 10 times or more just four times and in those four outings, the combined total was 43 shots resulting in 21 goals.

Ground balls: Every coach wants their players to be aggressive every play and that is what Kurek gives her teammates, maximum effort all game. The midfielder, who can obviously score, has been just as good defensively throughout her career. The former MWLC Defensive Player of the Year has 258 career ground balls, which is 82 more than the next best player. She has never had a game with double-digit ground balls but has recorded five or more ground balls 24 times.

Draw controls: Gaining possession is crucial in women's lacrosse and Kurek has given her team the ball more times than not. She has 277 career draw control victories and has grabbed at least 72 draw controls in each of her first three seasons. Just to put it in perspective, the Falcons have been credited with 766 draw controls over the past three-plus season, meaning she has accounted for 36 percent of the total. 

Caused turnovers: Hopefully by now, reading this far down in the article, you have come to understand the value of Allison Kurek to the Falcons program during her career. To give you more of an appreciation at how good she is, look at the career top-10 for caused turnovers. Kurek has 193 career caused turnovers and second place has 97. The Chicago, Ill., native twice set the program record for caused turnovers in a game with 10 and has 50 or more in each of her first three seasons. In addition, Kurek ranks eighth all-time in the NCAA annals for career caused turnovers.

Game-winning goals: Sometimes game-winning goals is a matter of scoring at the right time during contests to be credited with this statistic, but, nevertheless, Kurek has tallied nine career game-winning markers. Her most successful season came in 2016 when she netted five game-winners and did so in back-to-back games twice this year.