Third in a collection of weblog posts protecting the quarter century of TopOfTheCircle.com highlighting lacrosse.
In recent times, the main groups in women and girls’s lacrosse have developed. Though Maryland gained 5 nationwide titles following the top of their seven-year championship run from 1995-2001, the dominant group since then has been Northwestern.
The Wildcats’ program gained seven league titles between 2005 and 2012, and once more final yr with a dominant group that would win one other one this season (regardless of final Friday’s outcome in opposition to Penn State).
The storyline for Northwestern is as unlikely as it’s dominant. Head coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller was employed to revive a program that had folded and shut down in 1993. In simply 4 years, the Wildcats stood on the high of the platform as NCAA champions because of well timed scoring, protection and, most significantly, athletic gamers.
The purple line of nice athletes coming by means of this system is legion. I feel the start of the Northwestern dynasty had arrived when, because the story goes, Amonte-Hiller was driving by means of Evanston and noticed twins working in a park. The twins, Ashley and Courtney Koester, turned the constructing blocks for this system’s first nationwide title in 2005 at a contest in Annapolis, Maryland.
Main gamers adopted. The group had some absolute geniuses on the offensive finish reminiscent of Shannon Smith, Kara Mupo, Hilary Bowen, Katrina Dowd, Kristen Kjellman and Hannah Nielsen. The group additionally had gamers who did nice on protection reminiscent of Christy Finch, the Koester twins and Taylor Thornton.
Northwestern’s post-COVID historical past is outlined by present stars Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall. The Wildcats had been additionally capable of safe goaltender Molly Laliberty from Division III Tufts by means of the switch portal.
Talking of Division III, the group that has supplanted TCNJ because the dominant nationwide program in that division is Middlebury Faculty. The Panthers have gained 4 league titles since 2016, together with two of the final three.
Head coach Kate Livesay has put collectively a stellar program since taking up for the legendary Missy Foote, not solely recruiting from northern New England but in addition bringing in expertise on the Division I stage at occasions. Look no additional than Jane Earley, the Cohasset (Mass.) product who left by means of the switch portal to attend graduate faculty on the College of Denver, a group that made the Division I Remaining 4 final yr.
By way of scholastic lacrosse, the dominant program in recent times has been Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.). The group gained 198 straight video games between 2009 and 2018, whereas the Eagles program performed numerous interstate video games over time. Most of this success got here from head coach Chris Robinson, who used draw management and possession to construct this dynasty.
The Eagles had a number of the nice gamers of the period, together with Taylor Cummings, Sammi Burgess and Megan Whittle. The top of their collective dominance got here on an April weekend in 2012, when 4 groups from Maryland and 4 Lengthy Island met for 2 days of quadrupleheaders at Brooklandville St. Paul’s College for Ladies (Md.). Over the weekend, McDonogh defeated Backyard Metropolis (N.Y.) 20-9, and the following day topped Hauppage (Md.) 14-1.
There have been different nice groups and coaches over the previous 25 years, however these will dwell lengthy within the reminiscence.