Spring Break
Lowe leads Beavers solid middle infield
Joined at OSU by sister, teammate McKenna Lowe, senior Paige Lowe has proved a strong leader on OSU's roster
Maria Bruggere
Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Sports
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The Daily Barometer
Finishing up her final season at Oregon State, it was the sisterly bond that put the icing on the cake for senior second baseman Paige Lowe.
Lowe comes from a family of three sisters, and a brother who all grew up together in Tustin, Calif., and attended Foothills High School.
McKenna, Lowe's youngest sister is an outfielder for the Beavers. Their older sister Caitlin played for the University of Arizona as well as the USA softball team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics this past summer.
The three girls grew up playing softball together. Lowe, who was lucky enough to be in-between McKenna and Caitlin, was able to experience playing with both of them in high school.
"We never actually all three played at the same time because we are all two years apart, so I've played with Caitlin and McKenna but they've never played with each other," Paige Lowe said.
Having an older sister helped Lowe get looks from many different schools across the country when it came to be recruiting time. She said that it really made a difference in her opportunities for colleges.
"It definitely helped my exposure playing with my older sister Caitlin because she was older and I was on the teams as well, so the recruiters would see her, but they would also see me and my numbers and recognized the name and that helped a lot," Paige Lowe said.
The second baseman described herself as the sister who wants to please everyone, so when the time came to decide where she was going to continue her softball career, she turned to sister Caitlin for advice on how to go about following her aspirations.
"My sister sat me down and asked me what was going to make me happy," Paige Lowe said. "I decided that Oregon State was what was going to make me the most happy."
Lowe mentioned that Arizona was in her top five and she almost went there, but it was really more for her sister, Caitlin. However, she almost picked Arizona to make it easier on her family. McKenna on the other hand, decided Oregon State was the best fit for her and it was just a plus to be playing with Paige again.
"Playing with a sibling is such an awesome support system because when you're struggling, you've got someone there who's going through the same thing, but at the same time knows how to handle you when you are stressed out and knows how to pick you up and you have silly things that you can do that makes you feel better in two seconds," Paige Lowe said.
Lowe is almost done with her career at Oregon State and will graduate with a degree in Art with a focus in photography at the end of the term. Her passion outside of softball is taking photos, although according to her, she can't paint or draw to save her life.
"Photography wasn't something I wanted to do coming into school but I ended up falling in love with it and being in Oregon, it's so beautiful all the time and that it really inspired me to go with photography," Paige Lowe said. "It [photography] is always something I've been in to."
Lowe may be stuck in the middle of her family as far as age goes, but she is one of the senior leaders on the team that the younger players look up to both on and off the field. She's always trying to set a good example for her fellow teammates and is said to be a strong leader.
According to junior utility Tarah Black, the team is always looking up to her and has since she was a younger player on the team. Her focused work ethic motivates her fellow teammates to do well on and off the field. Whether she's sick or having a bad day, Lowe always tries to do the best she can.
"Paige is an amazing player," Black said. "She's a very versatile player on the field. As a friend, you can always count on her. She's an all around good person to have close to you. She has that role model persona that people look up to."
Lowe's sister and teammate McKenna has nothing but positive things to say about her older sister. She did say they have their disagreements, but they are always there for each other every step of the way. They've played on teams together off and on since they were young so the adjustment of playing with her in college was not hard.
"Paige and I are the closest out of the kids in the family so she's always shown me the ropes with everything," McKenna Lowe said. "She's always been the captain of the teams we've played on together so she's always the one to look up to."
Lowe talked about traveling to China to watch her sister compete on the US Olympic softball team and what that experience was like. McKenna mentioned that it was the first real vacation their family had ever been on and how much fun they all had together.
"It was amazing. It was really so surreal because she would call me and say she was hanging out with Kobe Bryant and playing RockBand with all these famous athletes so it was really a cool experience and I was really happy for her," Paige Lowe said.
Lowe's aspirations after she graduates from OSU are to travel overseas to play softball and also practice photography in her spare time. She mentioned that if they put softball back in the Olympics, she would like to tryout for the team and follow in her sister's footsteps.
"I hope the overseas thing works out for her so she can do photography and play," McKenna Lowe said.
Maria Bruggere, sports writer
sports@dailybarometer.com
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