Lauren Evans
Episode 364
26 JAN 2026
She played tennis at Furman University, with the program consistently finishing as a ranked team. They won the regular season conference championship for DI Southern Conference four times and the tournament three times and attended the NCAA tournament every year except for her senior year, when she was named MVP. She ran cross-country her senior year and a month after graduating ran her first marathon, finishing second in Italy. She had two opportunities to run professionally and has run four 50 miler races, finishing 3rd in the American River 50 Miler and winning several 50k’s. She had grown up playing tennis since age three and played tournaments in England and Italy. She came to the Catholic faith while in college, which she talks about during this interview.
Notable guest quotes:
“I grew up in Italy for a while and we had the opportunity to go in many, many churches. Also, when I lived in England, we went in a lot of churches just to see the art and architecture.”
“Sports are a beautiful thing, but I certainly experienced the parental pressure which I think is not healthy. That said I’m grateful that I played tennis. I’m grateful that I ended up on a college team.”
“I had a little bit of success in England but then when I went to Italy I played on the red clay and was older. And in Italy the way they function is you can play with 14-and-under, 16-and-under, 18-and-under, but the majority of the tournaments are just based on your level and it’s more of like a professional system. So, you would play against adults and I really felt that if you’re just talking from a sports development perspective that was really helpful because adults just think differently. They have more experience. Just because they’re older and have more experience, they’re smarter with how they play the game. So, I think my tennis game really took off by playing against adults.”
“When I first got to Furman it was a culture shock because I had grown up overseas my whole life. I had spent several years with Italians and then I went to the so-called Bible belt, and it was just a different culture. And so, the first semester was really difficult. I wanted to just go home.”
“I really liked going. I thought, this is good. I’m missing something. I love the joy, the communal prayer, but I did feel like something was missing.”
“Growing up in Italy there was some form of osmosis of going in and actually having the presence of Christ in the church, in the tabernacle.”
“I started going to Mass with her and I started going every Sunday when it was on campus and after a while I said I want to be Catholic.”
“I went to run the marathon, it’s very close to Loreto and I think I had an awareness that this is a special place. So, I ended up going to Loreto because I had an extra day there and I asked people, ‘What should I do,’ and they said, ‘You should go to Loreto because it’s right here.’ And it never registered to me that, like, Jesus’s house was there.”
“The biggest goal is that I will remain in relationship with my kids as they grow up and that they will become saints. And the goal of marriage is to mutually sanctify each other for mutual sanctification.”
“Why be mediocre? I think that’s the best lesson like from sports is you can’t really be mediocre and succeed. So, it’s like, you take what you learned in sports, and you have to apply it to the spiritual life. You can’t be mediocre in the spiritual life. That’s called being lukewarm.”