seeing double
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| Twins times two: Anne (left) and Lauren Sommer, Katie and Laura Heidenreich |
Frank Mateus is glad that soccer uniforms have numbers.
Mateus is head coach of Loyola’s women’s soccer team, which includes Katie and Laura Heidenreich, who are identical twins.
“They look and act so much alike, sometimes I have trouble telling them apart,” Mateus says.
The team has a second set of twins—Anne and Lauren Sommer—but they present less of a challenge. “They’re fraternal twins, so they look nothing alike,” Mateus says with evident relief.
Despite the occasional identity crisis, Mateus believes having the double set of twins aboard has helped the women’s soccer team win. With a record of 14-7-3 in 2006, the team won the Horizon League Championship before losing in the first round of the NCCA Tournament to No. 16 Florida.
The Ramblers approach the upcoming season with the powerful nucleus of last year’s team, including the Heidenreich and Sommer twins, who are entering their senior year.
WE ARE FAMILY
Mateus says his players are close, due in large part to the presence of the twins.
“It feels a lot like a family,” he says. “The twins are protective of each other, but at the same time, they’re extremely competitive with each other. That rubs off on the rest of the team.”
"We watch out for each other on and off the field.” |
| –Soccer player Lauren Sommer |
Katie and Laura Heidenreich, 20, have been playing soccer together since they were 5. Natives of St. Louis, they attended St. Joseph’s Academy, where they were on several state tournament teams, including one that captured a state title and national championship in 2002.
The Heidenreichs are both finance and marketing majors and share a dorm room. But on the field, Katie is on offense as a striker, while Laura is on defense as a center back.
“That probably comes from us playing on different sides of the ball when we practiced as kids,” Laura says.
The Heidenreichs are so close, they sometimes complete each other’s sentences. That closeness translates into a unique form of communication on the field.
“It’s not quite ESP, but I know exactly what Katie’s thinking, where she’s going to be on the field and what’s she’s going to do,” Laura says.
Anne and Lauren Sommer, 21, are a bit more independent. They grew up in Carmel, IN, but went to different high schools. Anne is an education major, while Lauren is pre-med. Anne is a midfielder; Lauren is a goalkeeper. Lauren considers herself organized, and typically is the first one on the team bus. She says sister Anne is a free spirit and always late.
Despite the differences, the Sommer sisters are close, Lauren says.
“There’s a strong connection between Anne and me,” she comments. “When I first got to Loyola, I was homesick. It was Anne who got me though that. We feel each other’s joy, and we feel each other’s pain. We watch out for each other on and off the field.”
JOHN T. SLANIA (BA ’79)