As a freshman at High Point in 2018, Abby Hormes led her team with 59 goals and earned Big South Freshman of the Year honors. In her sophomore year, she set program single-season records in two categories and scored in every single game. Then in the shortened 2020 season, she led the Panthers in assists.

She didn’t do anything particularly different to prepare for her senior season in 2021 — the same individual drills, watching film, looking for ways to improve her own game — but that work has arguably produced the best lacrosse of her career.

Hormes has tallied the second-most goals (75) in the country this year and is four goals away from hitting the career record for the most all-time in Big South history. Amid all the record- and net-shattering, she’s guided High Point to its fourth conference title in a row and a trip to the NCAA tournament later this month. High Point awaits its first-round matchup. The bracket will be revealed Sunday night.

“There’s always things that I’m still working on, and even when you’re a senior, you’re still out there seeing what you can do better,” Hormes said. “But definitely this year, I have felt the most confident and have learned the most. It’s made me the player that I am.”

That confidence was on display at last weekend’s Big South tournament. In the semifinal win over Winthrop, she hit the program record for goals in a single season and followed it up with six more scores — the most scored by one player in a Big South championship game — in the Panthers’ 20-7 takedown of Radford.

Earlier in the season, she tallied four goals in back-to-back games against North Carolina and James Madison. The Tar Heels (No. 1) and the Dukes (No. 7) own two of the country’s top 10 scoring defenses, but Hormes still managed to find a way to the cage. She’s one of only three players to score that many times against North Carolina’s stifling defense this season.

“From a work ethic standpoint, she’s gained confidence this year, in terms of recognizing that she’s the leader and she’s the anchor on offense. She gives our team a lot of the spark that we have in the transition game,” head coach Lydnsey Boswell said. “She’s been equally good in all of the years that I’ve coached her, but she’s just becoming more mature and really coming into that leadership role.”

The Panthers will enter the NCAA tournament having won nine of their last 10 games. They’ve played a competitive schedule this season, with one-goal losses to Jacksonville and James Madison, while also playing UNC, Vanderbilt and Duke. The tests they’ve faced already throughout the season prepared them for this next stage.

“We talk about getting better every day and playing teams that force us to look within our team a little bit,” Boswell said. “We’ve been happy to have teams that have pointed out our weaknesses, so that we know where our work is, and it’s the same thing going into NCAAs. We’re going to be really focused on what we do well.”

Hormes was on the field for High Point’s last two visits to the NCAA tournament in 2018 and 2019. Those trips ended with first-round losses, but the Panthers have a track record of being able to pull off an upset.

In 2017, they upset Towson for the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament win. In Hormes’ first two seasons, High Point registered wins over ranked Notre Dame, Duke and Johns Hopkins teams. Wherever the chips fall in the first round of this year’s tournament, the Panthers are ready to come out swinging.

“We always like playing higher-level teams. Personally, that’s my favorite part of the season, because I think it gives High Point the chance to show who we really are,” Hormes said. “We’re excited for the first round, and we hope to move even farther than we have in previous years.”