The 2022 college lacrosse season is nearly upon us. As is our annual tradition, we’re featuring every team ranked in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason Top 20.
Check back to USALaxMagazine.com each weekday this month for new previews, scouting reports and rival analysis.
NO. 17 DREXEL
2021 Record: 13-3 (4-0 CAA)
Final Ranking (2021): No. 12
Coach: Kim Hillier (1st season)
Entering 2022 with an abundance of “knowns” — basically an entire roster that returns from last season — Drexel also begins the new season with one colossal unknown.
What will this new iteration of the Dragons look like under new head coach Kim Hillier? Certainly, new strategies will be implemented and new players will emerge. But Hillier inherits a talented team that Jill Batcheller groomed before leaving for Villanova.
While those players embraced that Batcheller helped get them to the NCAA tournament during a historic 2021 season, they also embraced the need for change to reach the next level.
“It feels different,” graduate midfielder Lucy Schneidereith said during fall ball. “We didn’t rep things out and grind drills over and over again in the past, so it feels really good to get so many reps. I think that was our downfall last year. In the pressure moments, we were tired and we’d drop. These drills are pushing us physically and mentally.”
Hillier’s goal is to run her new team into shape. It’s not a punishment. Her hope is that the intense conditioning will prove fruitful come April and May. Hillier wants her team to get up and down the field and create transition opportunities — reminiscent of the Stony Brook teams of which she was an assistant coach under Joe Spallina.
NIKE/USAL PRESEASON TOP 20
TEAM PREVIEWS
Those teams were gritty and relentless. Luckily for Hillier, those are traits she needs to teach her new players. As players who struggled through adversity early in their careers at a mid-major, they already come with a certain chip on their shoulders.
“Right away, I got the vibe that this was the kind of place where people just worked their butts off,” Schneidereith said, recalling her initial visit to Drexel years ago.
The midfield, led by Schneidereith and Karson Harris, is easily the team’s biggest strength. It’ll continue to be a focal point if transition becomes the name of the game. Harris and Schneidereith also contribute to an offense quarterback by Colleen Grady, who led the team with 89 points and 41 assists last season. Grady will get some help from breakout candidate Allison Drake, a junior who didn’t play much — if at all — in 2021 but will shoulder increased responsibility after a strong fall.
“She is going to be an impact player,” Hillier said of Drake.
Drexel isn’t short on impact players, and that extends to the defense. Zoe Bennett was the 2021 CAA Goalie of the Year and is the epitome of a defensive anchor. The Dragons lose two defensive starters in Arden Edgerton and Rachel Warden, but Belle McHugh is back to help on that end. Hayleigh Simpson, a midfielder who started 16 games but made her presence felt defensively and on the circle, will help on that end, too.
One of the deepest teams in the country in terms of veteran leadership, Drexel is poised to continue its upward trajectory after a surprising breakout last spring. Coaches are taking notice.
“They deserve to be a team that’s talked about,” one rival coach said.