The fall semester at Winona State University is looking very different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite all the measures the university has taken to slow the spread of the virus, some students have reportedly ignored safety measures in place in favor of partying.

Sports have been postponed and pushed back to the spring in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus and keeping fans and athletes safe, and Winona State has been enforcing strict guidelines amid the virus, but not everyone has been adhering to those rules.

An anonymous profile posted a string of tweets and messages on Twitter, one with a grainy video of three players from the Winona State softball team taking shots of alcohol at the “softball house”.

The profile captioned the video with “Winona State athletes are now posting videos of themselves partying. These athletes should be setting an example but are partying with no regard for the pandemic, social distancing or the millions of high risk Americans. These are the people you recruit? Great look Winona State softball.”

The profile then continued on with tagging all of Winona State’s athletics, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and various news sources within the post.

The video posted was from pitcher/infielder Brianna Luciano’s VSCO account with two other players from the team: catcher Cammi Riener and one unknown athlete at this time.

Luciano deleted her Twitter account in the wake of the situation.

In response to the posts on Twitter, the Winona State softball and athletic department Twitter pages blocked the profile and later came out with a statement regarding the situation.

They stated, “We are aware of a video that has surfaced in regard to our program and softball family. We do not condone these behaviors, and we will address these actions with our team.”

When reached out to, the softball coach and faculty declined to respond.

The anonymous profile said that they have had no reply from anyone affiliated with Winona State University. The profile later posted a statement calling out Winona State and their lack of efforts in handling the situation.

“Rather than addressing the issue at the school simply ignores it,” they said. “They aren’t setting a good example.”

There have been profiles that have reached out in defense of the softball team and called out said individual for “not having anything better to do”.

The opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of Winona State University, the Minnesota State Colleges and University system, or the Winona State University student body.