TopOfTheCircle.com
Serving the scholastic field hockey and lacrosse community since 1998Archive for Uncategorized
May 30, 2023 — Top 10 for the week of May 28
There’s only about three weeks left in the domestic lacrosse season, with a number of major hurdles for teams to clear, especially with an eye towards the New York public school championship, which has the usual challenges before the teams that manage to win their sectional championship.
I think a lot of interesting results will come through Pennsylvania, whose bracket gets released in a few days, and a major tourney to watch is, of course, the CIAC Class L championship, where Darien, should the Wave make the final, will face the survivor of the lower draw in which sits New Canaan, Wilton, and a Newtown team which just happens to be undefeated on the season..
1. Darien (Conn.) 16-0
The Wave take on Stamford (Conn.) in the quarterfinal round of the CIAC Class L Tournament today, one week after dominating the FCIAC Tournament
2. Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.) 20-1
Season complete: Eagles beat Brooklandville St. Paul’s (Md.) 13-9 in Class “A” Tournament final
3. Radnor Archbishop Carroll (Pa.) 19-1
Won Philadelphia Catholic League tournament with a 20-3 victory over Springfield Cardinal O’Hara (Pa.); PIAA tournament to start next week
4. Bayport-Blue Point (N.Y.) 15-0
After beating Shoreham-Wading River (N.Y.) the Phantoms take on Mount Sinai (N.Y.) in the Class C final tomorrow evening at Stony Brook University; should be a tremendous contest
5. Brooklandville St. Paul’s (Md.) 17-2
Season complete: The Gators fell to Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.) in the final of the IAAM Class “A” Tournament
6. Delray American Heritage (Fla.) 22-1
Season complete: The Stallions made their run through the FHSAA Class 1A tournament look easy, especially with an 11-4 win over Orlando Lake Highland Prep (Fla.) team in the final
7. Eldersburg Liberty (Md.) 13-1
Season complete: Lions beat Fallston (Md.) 14-10 to win the MPSSAA Class 1A final
8. South Huntington St. Anthony’s (N.Y.) 16-2
Season complete: The Friars beat Hempstead Sacred Heart (N.Y.) 8-7 in the CHSAA final
9. Manchester (Md.) Valley 16-0
Season complete: Manchester Valley came back from two goals down to beat Middletown (Md.) 15-7 in the MPSSAA Class 2A final
10. Danville San Ramon Valley (Calif.) 22-0
Season complete: The Wolves beat El Dorado Hills Oak Ridge (Calif.) 14-7 in the final of the CIF North Coast Section Tournament
Who’s out: None.
And bear in mind: Denver Colorado Academy (Colo.) 19-0, Greenwich (Conn.) Academy 8-2, Wilmington Tatnall (Del.) 17-1, Lutherville Maryvale Prep (Md.) 16-3, Severna Park (Md.) 19-3, Olney Good Counsel (Md.) 16-5, Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.) 15-4, Summit (N.J.) 16-2, Moorestown (N.J.) 16-3, Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.) 16-1, Rush-Henretta (N.Y.) 16-1, Northport (N.Y.) 16-2, Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (N.C.) 22-1, Chantilly Paul VI (Va.) 18-6
Comments off
May 29, 2023 — After an interregnum, Northwestern re-ascends the mountain
Between 2005 and 2012, the Northwestern women’s lacrosse team won seven NCAA Division I titles and could have had an eighth but for losing a 6-0 lead that the team had built in the first nine minutes of play of the 2010 final.
Since 2012, Northwestern has been an elite team with elite players, but did not win a national title.
A handful of different circumstances hampered Northwestern in the last 10 years, including the fact that the game has grown significantly and there are more universities from which elite lacrosse players can choose. Stony Brook and Notre Dame were amongst the teams to end Northwestern’s season in the last decade.
And there was also last year’s seeming collapse on the past of Northwestern in a national semifinal against North Carolina. Northwestern had a seven-goal lead on UNC with 10 minutes to go, but Sam Geiersbach, a player UNC picked up in the transfer portal, went off. She had the last four goals for the Heels including the go-ahead goal with 1:03 left in regulation.
But Northwestern had a couple of final chances in the final minute of play. A couple of UNC turnovers against the high-pressure line of Northwestern led to a pair of open shots on goalie Taylor Moreno. The shots did not fall, Northwestern was eliminated, and UNC won the national final two days later.
These experiences, and more, were catalysts for the Wildcats during the team’s Final Four run, culminating in yesterday’s 18-6 win over Boston College in the 2023 title game.
Here’s what we think was the formula for Northwestern’s re-ascendancy:
1. Know your team and game-plan for the opponent. As impressive as they have been since Kelly Amonte-Hiller revived the program at the school two decades ago, this team did something which I think was unheard of. The Cats out-defended a defensive-minded Denver side in their 15-7 win in the semifinal round, then out-attacked one of the nation’s leading team goal scorers in Boston College.
2. You never know where your best player will come from. In the past, Northwestern was able to find great athletes from non-traditional areas, and even found the Koester twins from the school’s rugby program. Izzy Scane, from Michigan, was her usual excellent self with four goals, but the Most Outstanding Player was defensive midfielder Samantha White, who played her scholastic ball in public school in Baltimore County.
3. The transfer portal. Hailey Rhatigan, a transfer from Mercer University, had three goals. And in the back stood Molly Laliberty, who was a transfer from Division III Tufts. I’ve always known that there were good players who had fallen through the recruiting cracks into Division II and III, but this is the first time that I’ve seen a key player help steer a team to a national title at the Division I level.
4. Discipline. Boston College was yellow-carded five times during the game, leading to two Northwestern power-play goals. The Wildcats didn’t receive a single penalty card all game.
5. Value the ball. In an on-field interview, BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein mentioned the need to cut down on turnovers. Oddly enough, the official box score had the overall turnovers the same, at 21-19 for the Eagles. It was just that it seemed Boston College’s turnovers led to either goals or free-position chances.
6. Belief. A big part of Northwestern’s mental makeup in the 2000s was the “us against the world” mentality. From the coaching staff on down, the team took any word, any slight, any gesture as fuel for further domination. “We said at the beginning of the fall, ‘The most important thing is going to be believing,’” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said after the game. “We gotta believe, and I think it showed out there today.” It certainly was a return to the mentality that allowed Northwestern to dominate the world if Division I women’s lacrosse.
May 28, 2023 — Inside the NCAA Division I final
At nigh noon today, the 40th NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse championship will take place. We’ve got two championship-winning sides looking for supremacy after a season of winning efforts, new contenders, and countermeasures against great offenses:
NORTHWESTERN v. BOSTON COLLEGE
The obvious: These teams have met each other only six times, with each team winning three matches. The last time they met was on Feb. 19th, with Northwestern winning 15-14
The not-so-obvious: Both head coaches — BC’s Acacia Walker-Weinstein and Northwestern’s Kelly Amonte-Hiller — are part of the Cindy Timchal coaching tree, both having played for the University of Maryland. It is easy to forget, however, that Walker-Weinstein was an assistant at Northwestern for four years
Key players: NU: Izzy Scane (gr., a), Erin Coykendall, (sr., a), Hailey Rhatigan (gr., a), Madison Taylor (fr., a), Samantha Smith (so, c), Samantha White (so., d), Molly Laliberty (gr., g). BC: Jenn Medjid (gr., a), Shea Dolce (fr., g), Kayla Martello (jr., a), Cassidy Weeks (gr., m), Belle Smith (jr., m)
BC wins this game if: if Shea Dolce gets more than six or seven saves by halftime. She is one of those goaltenders who tends to get inside the heads of opposing shooters.
NU wins this game if: they give the ball to Scane and get out of the way. The Scane Train and faithful lieutenants are a group of wonderful players who were able to solve the Denver defense on Friday. I can’t see how Boston College can keep Northwestern from scoring more than their usual 15 goals
The unanswered questions: Will pace and rhythm mean anything to the coaching staffs? I have a feeling this is going to be an all-out track meet, and I think there are going to be a lot of yellows thrown in this game. I think at least one star player will not finish this game because of an accumulation of caution cards
May 27, 2023 — Taylor Cummings, winner extraordinaire, exits the sidelines
Taylor Cummings, perhaps the greatest all-around collegiate lacrosse midfielder of all time, resigned this week from her scholastic coaching position at Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.).
She exists that position the way that she entered lacrosse as a high-school freshman in 2009: an absolute winner. Cummings and her coaching staff were able to guide a talented Eagles squad to the Class “A” championship of the most competitive lacrosse conference in America, the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland.
The accomplishments of Taylor Cummings are well known. She was this site Player of the Decade for the 2010s, and well-deserved. No matter whether she wore McDonogh orange, Maryland red, the light blue of the New York Fight, the purple of the Baltimore Ride, the weekly color scheme afforded her in Athletes Unlimited, or the red, white, and blue of Team USA, all she did was win.
The sure-fire Lacrosse Hall-of-Famer has been sensational at the highest level, winning two gold medals in the World Cup, two NCAA championships, and three Tewaaraton Awards.
It would appear that she’s about to parlay this success into a burgeoning lacrosse business empire. Using her education at Maryland from the Smith School of Business, she has started her own lacrosse training company, based upon midfield play and training on how to win the draw, her specialty.
She also promotes lacrosse with Top of the Bay Sports, and was recently hired as the Director of Lacrosse by Spellman Performance and Universal Speed Rating, a company which seeks to teach biomechanics and advanced technical training to individual athletes.
In addition, she has been on the air with the Big Ten Network and ESPN as a good and insightful women’s lacrosse color analyst.
That’s a lot on one’s plate. But the fact that she has made a break with the school that helped make her a star on the field and on the coaching sideline has set off a smattering of speculation about her future. Might she take a Division I program in a prominent conference, such as the open Ohio State University position? Might she be in line for a future Division I team at a university such as Miami, Wake Forest, Georgia, Texas, or Tennessee?
Or could it be that Taylor Cummings, after so many years of high-performance lacrosse, is ready to make an impact in the board room, helping to grow the game across the United States?
No matter what she chooses to do, I’m sure it will be a successful and winning effort.
It’s what she does.
May 26, 2023 — Friday Statwatch for games played through May 24
This week, as the state tournaments start winding down, you’re getting more and more players rising the leaderboard for scoring in girls’ scholastic lacrosse. Take, for example, your new national goals leader, attacker Caroline Ling. She finished her season Monday with her Springboro (Ohio) team losing 14-8 to Mason (Ohio) in an OHSAA Division I octofinal matchup. Ling, a junior, has committed to Rutgers for her collegiate career, which means that she will be on the same campus as current national field hockey scoring champion Olivia Fraticelli in a couple of years.
What you see below are from available sources, including MaxPreps, Berks Game Day, the KHSAA, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Advance Media. To make this list an even more complete one, I encourage you to adopt the easy-to-use MaxPreps.com platform, and we encourage you to get your fellow teams to enter their information there as well as whichever is your local news site, so that we can aim for as complete a statistical picture of the country as possible.
GOALS SCORED, SEASON
167 Caroline Ling, Springboro (Ohio)
158 Vanni Intini, Fayetteville (N.C.) Academy
151 Riley Sterling, Palo Alto Castilleja (Calif.)
140 Sara Williams, Winter Haven All Saints Academy (Fla.)
136 Caroline Cage, Cuyahoga Falls Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (Ohio)
135 Ryann Frechette, St. John’s Bartram Trail (Fla.)
134 Jaryn Zdanavage, Irvine Portoia (Calif.)
131 Scarlett Gilner, Chapel Hill (N.C.)
130 Mikayla Williams, Columbus Bexley (Ohio)
129 Olivia Prosper, Draper Juan Diego Catholic (Utah)
126 Emily Walker, Bristol St. Paul Catholic (Conn.)
126 Sienna Chirieleison, Camp Hill Trunity (Pa.)
ASSISTS, SEASON
142 Lauren Hayden, Newport Croatan (N.C.)
87 Emily Phillips Wake Forest (N.C.)
87 Sophia Richardson, Lexington Sayre (Ky.)
87 Polly Miller, Fayetteville (N.C.) Academy
82 Charlee Nyquist, Lake Mary (Fla.)
78 Riley Nee (Hampstead Topsail (N.C.)
76 Taylor McGovern, Margery Stoneman Douglas (Fla.)
76 Ava Sebben, Lombard Montini Catholic (Ill.)
75 Allie Hirst, Southern Pines Pinecrest (N.C.)
74 Sophie Warren, Lakewood Green Mountain (Colo.)
72 Aubrey Harrison, Fairmount (W.Va.) Senior
70 Gabbi Koury, Pottstown Owen J. Roberts (Pa.)
ACTIVE COACHING VICTORIES
850 Kathy Jenkins|
503 Lisa Lindley
450 Chris Robinson
This list isn’t perfect. We could use some help in adding statistics which may be missing. If you see something amiss (bearing in mind that this is supposed to be a snapshot of lacrosse stats as of the end of play on Wednesday), please feel free to send an email to us at TopOfTheCircle.com. Include some backup (a website link will do), and we can make corrections.
Thanks for reading and we’ll try to do better next time.
Comments off
May 25, 2023 — Inside the NCAA Division I Final Four
Tomorrow, the real business of choosing an NCAA Division I champion begins. Four very good sides, each with generational athletes and coaches willing to employ them to their fullest extent, will be facing off at Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
Here’s our worm’s eye view of the championships:
NORTHWESTERN v. DENVER
The obvious: A classic matchup of offense vs. defense. Northwestern has scored more than 10 goals in every game but one this season. Denver choked the very life out of the North Carolina offense last Thursday in the national quarterfinal round in the Pioneers’ 5-4 win
The not-so-obvious: There is a lot to be said for experience; Northwestern has made the Final Four 14 times under head coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller. This is Denver’s inaugural trip to the Final Four.
Key players: NU: Izzy Scane (gr., a), Erin Coykendall, (sr., a), Hailey Rhatigan (gr., a), Madison Taylor (fr., a), Samantha Smith (so, c), Samantha White (so., d), Molly Laliberty (gr., g). DU: Julia Gilbert (sr., a), Ryan Dineen (fr., a), Lauren Black (so., a), Trinity McPherson (gr., d), Abby Jenkins (jr., c), Emilia Bohl (so., g)
NU wins this game if: they score more than 15 goals. No way can Denver keep up in a track meet.
DU wins this game if: they can hold Northwestern under 10. I am certain the Denver coaching staff has gotten hold of the tape of the two games Northwestern played against Michigan on May 4 and May 14. In the first game, Northwestern won 18-11. In the second, Michgan improved on the defensive end, but fell 8-7.
The unanswered questions: What kind of game are we going to see? If it’s a track meet, like the 1996 semifinal between Temple and Maryland, Northwestern wins with ease. If it’s a lock-down match like the 1997 FIL Women’s World Cup, Denver’s more likely to win it.
SYRACUSE v. BOSTON COLLEGE
The obvious: Two conference rivals who didn’t meet in the ACC final because the Orange were eliminated by UNC on April 28. Their lone meeting was the final game of the regular season, with Syracuse losing 17-16.
The not-so-obvious: Let’s refocus you on Syracuse: the Orange, the No. 2 seed, had two defeats in an eight-day period late in April. That can’t happen at this stage if you’re a supporter of the Onondagans. Boston College is looking to see whether the post-Charlotte North boomlet of star players at The Heights can compete at the highest level.
Key players: SU: Meaghan Tyrrell (gr., a), Emma Tyrrell (sr., m), Emma Ward (jr., a), Megan Carney (gr., a), Olivia Adamson (so., c), Katie Goodale (jr., d), Delaney Sweitzer (sr., g). BC: Jenn Medjid (gr., a), Shea Dolce (fr., g), Kayla Martello (jr., a), Cassidy Weeks (gr., m), Belle Smith (jr., m)
SU wins this game if: the midfield draw team is able to start possessions and if Katie Goodale is able to make a mark on defense. Which of the Emmas/Tyrrells will be the unstoppable force?
BC wins this game if: if Shea Dolce has the game of her young life. She stole the starting job from Rachel Hall and has been magnificent throughout the latter portion of the season.
The unanswered questions: Which unit will break first — the B.C. defense or the S.U. defense? And, which goalie is going to have the first real 10-bell save? Will Dolce and/or Sweitzer be required to make several of that caliber of stop?
May 24, 2023 — Might Athletes Unlimited morph into a more typical North American naming convention?
For giggles, I took a survey on the Athletes Unlimited website a few days ago.
One of the lines of questioning was interesting. It involved whether or not fans of AU identified with a single favorite player, or the color of the uniform, or the captain of a particular team over the course of a weekend.
During the first couple of years of AU women’s lacrosse, I didn’t identify teams by the captain (Team Cummings, Team Moreno, Team Apuzzo, etc.). Instead, I gave them my own mental nicknames — Purple Reign, Orange Crush, Goldenrods, and the Sky Blues.
Those names fly in the face of most sports, which identify with a territorial designation — a neighborhood (Chelsea F.C.), a city (Boston Celtics), a region (Hampton Roads Admirals), or even an entire state (Utah Royals). Now, we’ve been hearing that Premier League Lacrosse — a men’s summer lacrosse league which travels all over the U.S. — is going to give its heretofore vagabond teams an actual city name.
I wouldn’t mind Athletes Unlimited doing the same, albeit there are doing to have to be more than four teams in each of the leagues in order to accomplish this.
May 23, 2022 — Top 10 for the week of May 21
With Maryland public schools ending their seasons this week and the always competitive FCIAC Tournament in Connecticut, there is liable to be a lot more movement in our Top 10 than there was last week, which saw nobody lose or drop out.
1. Darien (Conn.) 13-0
The Wave take on Stamford (Conn.) in the quarterfinal round of the FCIAC Tournament
2. Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.) 20-1
Season complete: Eagles beat Brooklandville St. Paul’s (Md.) 13-9 in Class “A” Tournament final
3. Radnor Archbishop Carroll (Pa.) 19-1
Won Philadelphia Catholic League tournament with a 20-3 victory over Springfield Cardinal O’Hara (Pa.)
4. Bayport-Blue Point (N.Y.) 15-0
After beating Shoreham-Wading River (N.Y.) last Saturday, the Phantoms take on Mount Sinai (N.Y.) in the Class C final a week from tomorrow
5. Brooklandville St. Paul’s (Md.) 17-2
Season complete: The Gators fell to Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.) in the final of the IAAM Class “A” Tournament
6. Delray American Heritage (Fla.) 22-1
Season complete: The Stallions made their run through the FHSAA Class 1A tournament look easy, especially with an 11-4 win over Orlando Lake Highland Prep (Fla.) team in the final
7. Eldersburg Liberty (Md.) 13-1
Lions meet Fallston (Md.) in the state final this afternoon
8. South Huntington St. Anthony’s (N.Y.) 16-2
Season complete: The Friars beat Hempstead Sacred Heart (N.Y.) 8-7 in the CHSAA final
9. Manchester (Md.) Valley 16-0
Manchester Valley takes on Middletown (Md.) in the MPSSAA Class 2A final on Thursday
10. Danville San Ramon Valley (Calif.) 22-0
Season complete: The Wolves beat El Dorado Hills Oak Ridge (Calif.) 14-7 in the final of the CIF North Coast Section Tournament
Who’s out: None.
And bear in mind: Denver Colorado Academy (Colo.) 19-0, Greenwich (Conn.) Academy 8-2, Lewes Cape Henlopen (Del.) 16-1, Lutherville Maryvale Prep (Md.) 16-3, Severna Park (Md.) 16-3, Olney Good Counsel (Md.) 16-5, Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.) 13-4, Summit (N.J.) 14-2, Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.) 15-1, Rush-Henretta (N.Y.) 15-1, Canandaigua (N.Y.) Academy 13-4, East Setauket Ward Melville (N.Y.) 15-2, Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (N.C.) 22-1, Chantilly Paul VI (Va.) 18-6
Comments off
May 22, 2023 — A rise in the far west
Last weekend, the NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse tournament boiled down to the final four teams which will be playing in the national semifinals this weekend in Salem, Va.
Winning their way into the Final Four are eight-time champion Middlebury, two-time champion Franklin & Marshall, three-time champion Gettysburg, and five-time national semifinalist William Smith.
But there was one very notable team that fell just a game short of the final weekend. That team is the Sagehens representing Pomona College and Pitzer College, two of the seven Claremont colleges located right between Los Angeles and Rancho Cucamonga.
There have been teams outside of the established hotbeds which have made their mark in Division I and Division II in the last 20 years, but the Division III show has pretty much been the property of a coalition of teams from only a few conferences such as the NJAC, the Centennial, the Capital Athletic Conference, and especially the NESCAC.
The success of the Sagehens this year, with an 18-1 record, can be attributed to the coaching of Sarah and Sylvia Queener. Sarah, 20 years ago, graduated from Yale and started her coaching career at William Smith before heading west.
This year is her 12th at Pomona Pitzer, and she has her sister Sylvia at her side. Sylvia Queener was previously the head coach at Whittier College, and they and fellow assistant coach Brian Eisenberg were able to bring the Sagehens to the national quarterfinals yesterday, but fell 18-13 to Franklin & Marshall.
But the Queener sisters aren’t the only people who have been building the game of lacrosse in their family. Brice Queener, as it turns out, is the associate head coach of Denver University, which last week won its way into its first Final Four.
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as the Queeners are a family of coaches. The parents, Harry and Patricia, coach at Penn Yan (N.Y.) Academy, a school which has produced a plethora of prominent lacrosse players.
The Queener coaching tree is one which is likely going to be as massive as the redwood trees which populate California.
May 21, 2023 — An overlooked team wins its first title in Division II
Pace University’s women’s lacrosse program began in the spring of 2015 with a lot of hope, a decent recruiting base in New York’s Westchester County, and the greatest nickname in Division II sport, the Pace Setters.
Perhaps the team may have been spoiled by early success, as the 2016 team won the ECAC Division II championship as its first major trophy.
But Pace went through its early existence as a team which would be in the thick of the Northeast-10 race, but would, somewhere along the line, fall short. Last year, for example, the team did not make the NE-10 final and was not given an invitation to the 2022 NCAA Division II Tournament.
This year, despite losing the NE-10 final to LeMoyne, the Setters were given the No. 1 seed in the East Regional. Though Pace won that region, the Setters were reseeded third after second-round play.
If that slight was motivation, it certainly showed. Pace won a national semifinal against Florida Southern by 11 goals, then beat West Chester University, a team with two national championships in its past, by 10 goals.
It was the fifth time in the last seven title games that a first-time champion was crowned, and third in the last three years.
TopOfTheCircle.com 