Her leadership and level of play on the field seeps into every facet of Oregon lacrosse’s (6-6, 0-4 Big Ten) gameplan. 

The offense runs through her creativity, intelligent decision-making and relentless energy, and the defense proves the same, albeit with a bit more aggressiveness. Whatever Oregon does, it does with the guiding hand of senior midfielder and team captain Anna Simmons. 

Throughout the first part of the 2026 season, Simmons blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s most prolific end-to-end midfielders, also taking draw controls the majority of the time. In that phase of the game, she’s ninth in the Big Ten with 53 wins from the draw. When she does win, she becomes the engine of an offense that powered its way to a 6-2 record in nonconference play and outscored its opponents by a total of 38 goals through those first eight games. 

Simmons highlighted a dramatic opening day 12-11 overtime victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils, scoring four goals, the last three of which brought the game into overtime and won it during the extra period. 

Her 2-2 mark on free position shots demonstrated her ability to create contact by being aggressive both with and without the ball. That’s something that’s continued to baffle defenses, even despite a slow start to conference play.

Oregon opened the Big Ten part of the schedule with a 15-7 loss against the then-No. 2 Maryland Terrapins, but head coach Jessica Drummond felt comfortable shuffling the cards in the second half, sending Simmons into attack. She helped spur a four-goal second half that contained a lot more fluidity than the first. 

“She’s been in midfield for us in the past two years, but we had her playing attack because we were a woman down there. But we had an option and she went in and did a great job,” Drummond said after the loss. 

Moving her up to attack leaves half of her incredible skillset useless, however, she’s grown into one of the best defensive midfielders in the conference throughout the year.

Simmons is twelfth in the Big Ten in caused turnovers with 14 and she sits tied for eleventh in caused turnovers per game among players that have played 10 or more games with 1.2. Those numbers are largely due to her never-ending motor and ability to be a physical defender while also not fouling. She also hustles to almost every groundball, picking up 20 this season (10th in conference), good for 1.7 per game, which is tied for eleventh in the conference. 

The back half of Oregon’s season will be a gauntlet, with five of the final seven games coming against teams currently ranked in the IWLCA Coaches’ Top-25, and Simmons’ role on each end becomes much more important. 

The Ducks will rely on her ability to create turnovers and transition that into fluid offense and shots on goal. Pulling off upsets in these games will come from her leadership, as it did during that first game comeback over ASU.