Sisters Alex and Tory Agnew have taken their lacrosse talents from Davis High School to UC Davis

Aggie women's lacrosse hosts Arizona State in Big 12 Conference showdown on Picnic Day

Note from The Wary One: James Wilson, a talented sportswriter who serves as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications at UC Davis, has penned an excellent piece about Davis' own Agnew sisters, Alex and Tory, who are both members of the Aggie women's lacrosse team. He shares that story here.

When UC Davis lacrosse sixth-year senior Alex Agnew and freshman Tory Agnew both tore their ACLs in 2023, together they set a goal to work hard in rehab and together one day take the field as Aggies.

This season, 2025, the Agnew sisters have done just that, even connecting on Tory’s first career assist, showcasing Aggie Pride only two sisters from Davis can.

Tory Agnew (34) and Alex Agnew (6)

For the Agnews, who both grew up in Davis, the thought of playing for their hometown team was always in the cards. After earning letters in both basketball and lacrosse for Davis Senior High, Alex received offers from many Division I programs to play lacrosse at a higher level, eventually deciding to stay home and play for the Aggies.

“I felt so protected when I was here, and everybody was so welcoming,” said Alex. “I’ve always said that it was like a second family, and it’s been nice being close to home as well.”

As Alex walked across the stage at Davis High graduation in 2019, her younger sister Tory, in 7th grade at the time, began to come into her own in her sports career.

“I played soccer growing up, and that was all I really wanted to do.” Tory said, “but then I started playing lacrosse, and I realized how much better I was at lacrosse.”

Tory set records of her own with the Blue Devils, and for the younger Agnew, the recruitment process felt very similar. “I didn’t really care where I was going to go,” recalled Tory. “I was very open-minded going into it, but I knew that if I was going to go anywhere on the West Coast, I was going to go here.”

After her recruitment from schools on the East Coast fell through, Tory saw it as a sign. “My mom said to me that they had essentially made the decision for me.”

As both Agnews embarked on their final years of high school and college, respectively, devastating ACL injuries ended their seasons before they could begin.

“I tore my ACL on the first day of practice last year (2024),” remembers Alex. “Before I finished here at Davis, I had some goals statistically that I wanted to achieve for myself, so when I got injured, I just decided that I had to come back.”

Tory remembers her injury playing flag football: “I tore it in September of my senior year of high school and I instantly knew that I was going to be out of my senior year of soccer and my senior year of lacrosse, which was really hard for me to take in.”

Together, the Agnew sisters drew strength from each other, going through the same rehab and exercises together, they knew it would get them through it.

“We were in pretty much the same position,” said Alex. “I was a little further ahead than she was, but I kept checking in and seeing how she was doing. That really helped both of us get through the rehab process both physically and mentally.”

“I remember asking Alex questions like whether or not my knee was where it should be or what exercises I should be doing,” remembers Tory. “That made it easy because I had someone I trusted to talk to about it. It’s something that you can’t just talk to anyone about, and having that person be my sister just made it even easier.”

With Alex maintaining her final year of eligibility and Tory entering her first season as an Aggie, the sisters were given the opportunity to play lacrosse side-by-side for the first time ever.

“I remember our first day of practice this year. And we started to warm up together, and I realized that this might have been the first time we had done that together in practice,” said Alex.

They have since played numerous games together, with Tory scoring and recording her first career assist on an Alex goal at Mercer on March 7. The Agnew sisters have combined this season for a total of 22 goals, 29 assists, and 51 points, with the two of them far from finished.

With Alex on her way out and Tory on her way up, it’s clear that the Agnew legacy at UC Davis will be in good hands for years to come.

The Aggies are 5-7 overall this season and 1-1 in the far-flung, six-team Big 12 Conference that includes Florida, Colorado, Arizona State, Cincinnati and San Diego State.

In non-conference play this season, UC Davis has faced the likes of Cal, Stanford, USC, Notre Dame and Oregon.

The team will honor Alex and the rest of the senior class when they play host to Arizona State at 1 p.m. on Picnic Day. Admission is free and the match will be streamed live on the UC Davis Aggies YouTube channel.