When Reagan Kuehn first picked up a lacrosse stick around age 9, something clicked. She had tried it all — soccer, basketball, track, gymnastics, ballet — but lacrosse was different.
“I just got a stick in my hand, and I was like, yeah, this is definitely my sport,” Kuehn said.
Years later, the Maryland native is one of Elon University’s most important defenders, playing a position her head coach, Josh Hexter, has compared to the most high-pressure role in football.
“He likes to say that the backer is the quarterback of the defense,” Kuehn said. “And that lights a fire under everyone around me, too.”
Coming from Maryville High School, a program that plays by college rules, Kuehn arrived at Elon better prepared for the jump to Division I than most. But it wasn’t skill alone that defined her growth as a Phoenix. It was trust.
Trust is a word Kuehn returns to constantly, almost like a mantra. As the backer in Elon’s zone defense, she functions as the last line of communication.
“I trust the girls out on the field with my heart,” she said. “And even if they don’t feel that same way for me, I don’t care — because I have everyone’s back.”
That trust was partly forged through adversity. Kuehn said her freshman year was a genuine test. She was six hours from home, homesick and learning a new system in a new place.
“I’m a homebody,” she admitted. “Growing up and realizing that it’s okay to struggle, because all these girls also feel the same, that was something I had to learn.”
What got her through it was the locker room. Gradually, she became the kind of player who helps others find their footing the same way others once helped her.
A defense in evolution
Elon’s defense has undergone significant change during Kuehn’s three years on campus.
In her freshman year, the team played man-to-man. Her sophomore year brought a shift to zone, and in January of this year, Hexter introduced yet another change: the backer zone, placing Kuehn at the center of it.
“It’s definitely been a change, but I think it’s a change for the better,” Kuehn said.
In the old rover scheme, one player focused solely on interior cutters, tracking movement without watching the ball. The backer zone, as Kuehn describes it, is more layered, part rover, part support, part quarterback.
She backs up the defenders engaging one-on-one, reads the field for interceptions in the middle and communicates constantly.
“It’s kind of a concoction of everything our defense has been over the past few years,” she laughed.
Hexter sees it similarly, and appreciates what Kuehn specifically brings to the role.
“She’s got a job of trying to take away vision, bat down passes, she’s gonna have to slide and be the help,” he said. “And she’s got to be the biggest voice out there.”
The switch came with an extra challenge. Elon lost a defensive coordinator, and Hexter stepped in to lead the unit himself. He made the strategic call to install the backer zone, and Kuehn embraced it, even taking it upon herself to help her teammates adapt.
“Teaching the girls this new style of play has actually helped me develop as a player,” Kuehn said. “I realize things that can be implemented. And Josh is so open to us coming to him with concerns or things we could work on.”
If there’s a phrase that defines Elon’s defensive identity this season, it’s one Hexter repeats consistently: Bet on us.
“I don’t want us to be reactive,” Hexter explained. “Instead of focusing so much on what we see on film and reacting to it, I want us to do what we do. Be proactive. What we’re doing is going to work regardless of what offense we’re facing.”
But it goes deeper than strategy. Hexter uses it as a psychological anchor against outside noise.
“You make a bad play, you lose a game, there’s always chatter,” he said. “For our defense to just look at each other and be like, ‘Yep, I bet on you. You bet on me.’ The rest of it kind of doesn’t matter.”
Kuehn has internalized it fully.
“Just play our own defense, our own game, and not even think about the other team,” she said. “When we play like ourselves, we can dominate any team.”
The ‘click’
Every player has a moment when it all comes together. For Kuehn, it arrived during her freshman year Winter Term. It’s a lesson she still carries.
An assistant coach at the time pulled her aside and told her something simple: Stop backing up. Take your space. Step forward.
“Obviously, when a full girl is running full speed at you, you want to back up,” Kuehn said. “But she really broke that through for me and made me the confident player I am today. She sparked something in how I thought about trust and what it means for a team.”
That confidence now radiates outward. Underclassmen seek her out during practice with questions. She studies the game, and she thinks about how to make the players around her better. Hexter has noticed.
“She’s a lax rat,” Hexter said with a smile. “She works hard at honing her craft. She watches a lot of film, comes in and really hashes it out and tries to get smarter. And out here, she’s always pushing to get better.”
Away from the field, Kuehn is one of the thread-holders of Elon’s team culture. She talks about locker room music like it’s sacred ground — country Fridays, throwback days, EDM before big games.
“If we could play music during a game, I so would,” she said, laughing.
And when the pressure mounts in a bad practice, a tough loss or a three-hour session in the rain, Kuehn said she knows what it takes to turn the tide.
“One positive attitude helps get rid of all the negatives,” Kuehn said. “One person will say something funny and the whole team laughs, and that’s the vibe for the rest of practice.”
For Elon lacrosse, Reagan Kuehn is that person. The quarterback in the back. The voice in the middle. Betting on everyone around her, every single day.