Since mid-February, girls’ scholastic lacrosse teams have encountered all manner of competitions, whether it’s league fixtures, in-season tournaments, interstate contests, and playoff games.
State champions have been crowned, as well as various confederation and sectional championships.
Sure, we can rank teams and show physical aggregations of statistical information on a weekly basis.
But what have we learned from the 2025 season? Here are some takes from the season just past:
INDIVIDUAL DEFENSE. The art of defense in girls/women’s lacrosse has been very much a point of contention, especially with the increase in stick skill and stick technology over the last decade. There is very much a boomlet of attacking players inspired by the likes of Charlotte North, Taylor Cummings, and Dana Dobbie who have made it very difficult for opposing defenders to be able to make a fair check on them, much less execute one to create a turnover.
But I’ve been seeing individual players, honed in the crucible of club competition, who are being recruiting specifically for defensive roles rather than getting recruited as an all-rounder before moving to defense on their collegiate teams, something which has been happening for years.
TEAM DEFENSE. Planned defensive schemes used to be the property of the elite scholastic teams. But nowadays, everyone has a plan and at least one adjustment.
It used to be that most high-school girls’ lacrosse teams’ defensive philosophy boiled down to the word “hope.” But you’re getting many more teams taking advantage of better individual defensive training.
A big part of this comes from the free-movement rule, which has allowed players to move around in dead ball situations, place themselves in strategic locations in the defensive third, and forcing difficult entry passes.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS. The finest teams in the country over the past 20 years have mostly been non-public schools like Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.), Towson Notre Dame Prep (Md.), and more recently, South Huntington St. Anthony (N.Y.). St. Anthony, like their field hockey sisters at Pottstown Hill School (Pa.), are not only the best, they are the best by a country mile.
St. Anthony is not alone when it comes to the elite. The top three in the TopOfTheCircle.com preseason Top 10 were private schools. Half of the current Top 10 are private or parochial schools, including three of the top four.
THE WEB OF COMPETITION. The level of out-of-state competition is about where it was before the global Coronavirus pandemic. Teams from Maryland to California are competing against prominent opponents. Some are on a touring basis, others in tournament like Spring Fling or Gains for Brains.
I’d like to see if there’s going to be a centralized tournament of invitees from many states like the National High School Invitational. The game of lacrosse is, I think, ready for such a competition.
DORO. From my perch next to the scorer’s table, I’m seeing an ever more complex choreography in the substitution box after every center draw. That’s because just about every team has emphasized the use of the Gait Lacrosse “draw stick,” which has led to an arms race not only when it comes to the use of this stick, but particular draw-control specialists to use it.
I’m still dubious as to whether a particular team can flip a result by using a Draw On Run Off (DORO) player. I still feel as though you can have a great all-around midfielder (Taylor Cummings, anyone?) to win draws, score goals, make defensive plays, and control the flow of the game without a specialist. Too, I see many contests where one team wins an enormous percentage of draws, but loses the game.
Sure, a team which feels as though it can win extra possessions from the draw can feel justified in thinking those extra possessions can lead to extra shots and extra goals. But I think putting this amount of effort in the draw is. ultimately, a fool’s errand.
