Dani Mlkvy Heads into Junior Season Following her Sister’s Footsteps

CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team is a sisterhood. For junior defender Dani Mlkvy, however, it was in the literal sense the last two years.

Dani's older sister, Sam, played a significant role the last six years, exercising her additional COVID season in Spring 2021. When Sam graduated, she left as a very accomplished player, finishing in the top-10 in multiple career statistics at UC, such as goals, hat tricks and points.

Now, it is Dani's time.

Since Sam, who is four years older than Dani, was a sixth-year senior, this allowed her to play with Dani for two.

"I had never played with any of my sisters until Sam," said Dani, who was named to the AAC's Preseason All-Conference team this week. Her 25 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers rank first and second, respectively, among UC's returners.

Sam's playing at UC did have an effect on where Dani wanted to continue her lacrosse career, but it was not a clear-cut decision. Dani, a native of Berlin, New Jersey, thought that the distance would not be ideal for her.

"I wanted to stay closer to home," said Dani. "Sam definitely helped my decision a lot."

Eventually, Dani made the decision to become a Bearcat. With being far away from home, the only person Dani knew at UC was her sister. Sam helped Dani get acclimated to her new environment.

"I'm thankful that Sam came and helped give me the sense of home here at UC," said Dani. "I really do love it out here, so the distance isn't a problem anymore."

Dani was able to fit right in with her new team and teammates when she arrived on campus because of Sam's help.

"It was nice to have Sam here because she had a connection with the older players," said Dani. "I felt like I had that connection as well."

Dani's getting to play with her sister for the first time came with some intense competition in practices. Even though it got fierce, Dani knew that Sam was only trying to make her better.

"We definitely butted heads a lot, but I knew that she had it in my best interest," said Dani with a laugh. "She would tell me straight to my face what I was doing wrong and right, but I felt like I could also do the same even though I was a freshman and sophomore."

While Dani and Sam had competitive and memorable moments in practice, there are also memorable games that come to Dani's mind while playing with Sam in her first two years.

"I would say that ECU last year was pretty thrilling because it was two really close games that we played them back-to-back," said Dani. "The second one we ended up winning."

With Sam's big class graduating last year, this will be Dani's first year on the team without her.

"I'm going to miss her this year, but it is definitely a little weight off my shoulders," said Dani. "I did feel pressure."

With the 2021 class gone, this leaves Dani in a position to be a leader on the defensive end. She will have to build rapport with new teammates and starters this year.

"It's definitely a new team and I'm really excited," said Dani. "I trust everyone, and we just have to build that chemistry again because it was the same people in the past two years."

Dani will go into her junior year being a very crucial piece to the team and will be a leader on the defensive end. Part of that includes working with first-year defensive coordinator, and former four-year UC letterwinner, Haley Hardy.

"I love Haley," Dani said. "She's awesome and really connects with us. When she has a second, she'll talk to us about personal things, how she's feeling and stuff like that. We do our own thing like attackers do, and the defense has such a good chemistry that I can't even explain. We all love each other, and Haley really plays into that too."

While being a leader on the team, Dani is majoring in speech, language, and hearing sciences. She says she hopes to work with younger kids.

"I want to be a speech pathologist," said Dani. "I'm hoping to work in an elementary school, but we will see what happens."

The Bearcats open their season at Marquette on Feb. 12, with their first home game on Wednesday, Feb. 16 against Ohio State (4 p.m.) in Nippert Stadium.