By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – By the time she slides into her coxswain's seat of Seattle Pacific's four-oared racing shell on Friday, Lucy Sandahl will have done her rowing homework. 
 
She already will have gone over her mental notes from April 15, when they raced on this same Cooper River in Pennsauken, New Jersey. She will have reviewed her course maps, although this particular course is said to be about as straight – and as straight-forward – as it gets. She'll already be communicating with her four oar-pulling teammates … and they'll be listening. 
 
One of those rowers – the one in the bow seat, immediately behind Lucy  -- will be an especially keen listener. It's part of her job to help keep the rhythm right while also keeping an eye on what's happening with the other boats around them. 
 
But this particular bow rower will be able to communicate with her cox in another way. In a way that keenly exists … 
 
… between two sisters. 
 
That SPU rower is 22-year-old senior Sophie Sandahl. And Lucy, a junior and the one who's making all the calls? 
 
That's her 20-year-old sibling. 
 
As the Falcons embark on their second of back-to-back trips to the NCAA Division II Championships this week, the Sandahls will be back-to-back in the varsity four boat when the heat races begin at 8:48 a.m. Pacific time on Friday. 
 
"By having her in the boat, especially right behind me, it just gives me that sense of ease," Lucy said. "I know in a quick second, I can lift my mic up, say something to her, ask a question, and I know it's just a quick one-on-one conversation that we're both communicating through.  
 
"Being that close to someone that I've grown up with, it's basically mental telepathy." 
 
 

Sophie, who has worked with varsity eight cox Moxie McCandless, as well as with other coxes during her time at Seattle Pacific, says it's just intuitive between them. 
 
"Even her tone – just growing up with her, I know what she's thinking. It's like, 'All right, Lucy's excited. She sees something that we don't.' 
 
"It's an unspoken understanding of what's going on with each other." 
 
From head coach Caitlin McClain's viewpoint, certain qualities that the Sandahls bring to the team are vital, whether they are in the same boat, as they are this weekend, or in different boats, as has been the case in other regattas. 
 
"They both epitomize a level of commitment and work ethic that is pretty remarkable and unique in terms of having challenges, having moments of, 'Do I really want to do this?'" McClain said. "But once they're in, they are in. 
 
"They are such a key part of our team, such a stronghold," McClain added. "Having the pair of them makes it even stronger." 
 
TWO SPORTS WORLDS 
Growing up, Sophie and Lucy Sandahl lived in vastly different athletic worlds. 
 
Sophie was primarily a swimmer –breaststroke, individual medley, and sprint freestyle. Lucy was a volleyball player – mostly as a setter, then later as a defensive specialist. Both did track and field, but usually different events. 
 
 

After moving from South Carolina to Coupeville on Whidbey Island, about 35 miles and a ferry ride northwest of Seattle, those athletic worlds didn't even revolve around the same high school. Both started at Coupeville, and that's where Lucy stayed. But Sophie wound up going about 10 miles north to Oak Harbor because it was a larger school, had more varied class offerings, and had a competitive high school swimming program. 
 
"It was weird, not what I was expecting," Lucy said of their separate experiences. "Oak Harbor and Coupeville would come together during track, and I think there was one meet where we ran the 1600 together." (Yup – the 2019 Island Jamboree when Lucy, then a junior, finished sixth, and Sophie, a senior, was 11^th.) 
 
However, neither of them planned to pursue any kind of athletics after graduating. 
 
"I was like, 'Oh man, I would never do these sports (swimming and track) beyond high school because they're really intense, and I thought college athletics was a whole other ball game," Sophie said. 
 
Likewise, Lucy felt she was ready for her next chapter of life, saying, "I just wanted to have a fresh start in college and not do any sports and just kind of roll through freshman year." 
 
DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE WATER 
Although they're a couple years apart in age, both arrived at Seattle Pacific together in the fall of 2020. Sophie had gone to community college for a year and was a sophomore; Lucy was a freshman. There were no fall sports competitions or practices of any kind that year, as the world was still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic and its various shutdowns. 
 
Ironically, that's part of what spurred Sophie to take the leap into rowing. 
 
"I thought that coming out of Covid, I wanted to find community, and I heard that the rowing team was a really tight community," she said. 

 

What she hadn't heard was that it was a bona fide college athletics program. 
 
"I entirely thought it was a club team," she said with a laugh. "They handed me the NCAA paperwork and I thought, 'OK, this is interesting. Why does this have the big NCAA logo on it?' it was definitely not what I was expecting, but I would not change the process at all." 
 
By the spring of 2021, the Falcons were able to compete in a limited, locally-based schedule of regattas, and Sophie earned a seat in three of them: once in the novice eight, once in the novice four, and once in the second varsity eight. 
 
While Sophie rowed, Lucy watched from the shore.  
 
"It was fun to go to the races and see the team," she said. "But I never thought much about, 'Oh, that would be so fun to join.' (Sophie) would throw in little hints here and there, like 'Next year, do the tryouts.' But even ending my freshman year, I never had any idea that I would try out.". 
 
IT TOOK AWHILE, BUT … 
Prior to starting her sophomore year at SPU, Lucy was one of the leaders for campus freshman orientation. In her recollection of that day, it was when she and her group walked past the rowing team booth that it finally happened. 
 
"I was like, 'OK, fine,' and I signed the paper," she said. "I'll cave in and see what happens. 
 
"I'm very happy that everyone finally wore me down and got me to join." 
 
Speaking of being very happy … so was McClain, who had kept her distance and let her rowers make the sales pitch, such as it were. 
 
"She ended up coming out and being an awesome rower and cox," McClain said. 

As is the case with all newcomers, Lucy didn't get into a boat right away – there was plenty of work and learning to do. But once she did, she found a perspective that she wasn't expecting. 
 
"Track is very individual. Volleyball is more team-based, but you still have your own set (role)," she said. "In a boat, you're physically moving and having to move with people. That definitely brought a whole new look to my version of teamwork." 
 
RIGHT SIZE, RIGHT FIT 
For Sophie Sandahl, the races on Friday and Saturday in New Jersey will be her last as a Falcon. Majoring in art history and minoring in museum studies, both the school and rowing have turned out to be the perfect fit for her after a year in community college. 
 
"We went through a year of Covid and I was like, 'You know what I want the four-year experience,'" she said. "I had heard really good things about SPU from my dad while he was working at Camp Casey. I was drawn in by the fact that it's a smaller college compared to UW or Seattle U. … It feels community-based, and I liked that." 
 
Like athletes in any sport, she dealt with some injuries. But with encouragement from McClain, she persevered. 
 
"I think the commitment that she displays is something that is really remarkable and something that other people see and feel," McClain said. "She is really committed to the process of getting better. I think where she is right now, having her in the varsity four for GNAC and now for NCAAs is definitely a goal of hers and one she has worked very hard to achieve. She has worked through various challenges and is just really showing commitment and dedication." 
 
'MORE TO GIVE, MORE TO PUSH' AT NCAAs 
Commitment and dedication, not only from the Sandahls but from the rest of the Falcons as well, helped them earn their tickets to New Jersey, one of the six teams to be selected. 
 
They'll certainly be familiar with most of the competition. Of the other five teams, three are from the GNAC: Central Oklahoma, Cal Poly Humboldt, and Western Washington. (UCO and Humboldt are affiliate members for rowing.) 
 
The Falcons are eager for another shot at all of them after the conference regatta two weeks ago on Eugene's Dexter Lake didn't go quite as well as they wanted: The eights finished in third place and the fours finished in fourth. 
 
"We know and we've seen throughout the season that we can push and work 10 times stronger than what we showed at GNAC," Lucy said. "We're just willing and so ready to know we've got more to give and more to push." 
 
 

Added Sophie, "There's a way we all work together and help each other out – any boat, any seat, any place you are on the team. There's that push from the younger members all the way up to the varsity members." 
 
It wasn't by design that the Sandahls will be back-to-back on the Cooper River. As McClain explains it, "There's definitely an element of them being in the boat together that is powerful for them that they share. But it's not something that is going to necessarily transcend to the rest of the boat. Lineups are just a matter of who sits best in the boat: Who are the best people and then what seat is best for them." 
 
Intentional or not, the sisters are delighted that they'll literally be right there for each other in one final regatta. 
 
"Even when situations are tense, it helps," Sophie said. "It doesn't feel like butting heads. It's more like, 'I respect that you're stressed, and we're in this situation, so let's just work through it.' 
 
"There's more wiggle room because we understand each other, and we can communicate in a different way." 
 
Occasionally, that way is not with words. 
 
"There are times when she can sense that I'm stressed, and she'll reach back and touch my shoulder or pat me on the back or give me a fist bump," Lucy said. "And I know when she is having an off day and is just really out of it, that motivates me to keep pushing her through, because I also love being the person who is striving (to help) her get to where I know she can be." 
 
Sophie Sandahl calls it an unspoken understanding. Lucy Sandahl calls it mental telepathy. It might not exist between just any two people. 
 
But it most keenly exists … 
 
… between two sisters.