It’s been an odd second weekend of the women’s collegiate lacrosse landscape. Indeed, it’s been as fraught with perils as the last quarter-century in the men’s game.
The women’s game has caught up to the men’s in that respect. The expanding player pool, the number of schools investing in the sport, and the willingness of these schools to hire coaches with outsized ambition have led to an unrecognizable Division I competitive sphere.
Think of it. Notre Dame beat Boston College yesterday. Stanford beat a good Clemson team. Syracuse gave North Carolina everything it wanted before bowing by four. You’re also seeing improvement by the likes of Pittsburgh, West Point, and, of course, Colorado, the team that upended Northwestern last weekend.
Now, I’ve always said that you can’t necessarily win a national championship in the first three games of the regular season. You can certainly lose one, depending on what kinds of adjustments coaches and players make.
This especially goes for first-year players, who can provide an infusion of skill and abilities — just look at Chloe Humphrey, who won a Tewaaraton Trophy as a first-year. And there is also freshman forward Alexa Spallina, who yesterday broke the Clemson record for combined goals and assists (6-4–10) in a single game.
I think this young group of disruptors who have been playing so well in high school and the club level are going to have as big an impact on the game as the group that won the 2019 World Lacrosse U19 gold medal in dominating fashion. That team included the likes of Izzy Scane, Caitlyn Wurzburger, Rachel Hall, Maddie Jenner, and Kasey Choma.
Should be interesting to see what happens, week by week, in the world of Division I.