NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Storylines for 2025

As the 2025 NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse season starts rolling in earnest this weekend — 19 of the 20 teams in the USA Lacrosse Division II Top 20 will have taken the field by Sunday evening — it’s a good chance to identify some of the storylines that will be fun to track over the next three months.

We’re starting with four top line items, but there will certainly be a bundle of unanticipated developments that emerge as we work our way through the coming weeks.

The fun is just getting started.

Will Tampa run it back?

The Spartans captured their first NCAA championship last spring, closing the year with an 11-game winning streak, capped with wins over Regis and Adelphi in the final four.

With returning talent throughout the lineup in 2025, Tampa is the popular preseason choice as the team to beat. Coach Kelly Gallagher has utilized the transfer portal as well as any coach in Division II, stockpiling Division I talents like Sophi Wrisk (Maryland), Peyton Howell (Louisville), Lexi Waters (Florida) and Sarah Engle (Loyola) to build a dynamic roster.

If it all comes together again, Tampa could become the first repeat champion since Adelphi went back-to-back in 2015.

Can Adelphi return to glory?

The Panthers are the most decorated team in Division II women’s lacrosse, having won nine titles since the launch of the D-II championship in 2001. That’s five more than the next most successful program.

Adelphi’s titles include three championships (2015, 2017, 2019) under the leadership of coach Pat McCabe, as well as a runner-up finish last spring with the Panthers returning to the championship game for the first time since 2019.

Adelphi lost its top three scorers from 2024, all of whom tallied 50 goals or better, but McCabe doesn’t rebuild as much as he reloads each year. An early season rematch (this Saturday) of the national championship game against Tampa should provide some insight.

The expanded NCAA tournament bracket

When Tampa hoisted the NCAA trophy, Division II crowned it fourth straight first-time national champion, following Lindenwood (2021), UIndy (2022) and Pace (2023). In fact, six of the last eight champions dating back to 2016 have been first-time winners.

With an expanded NCAA bracket of 24 teams this year — the largest ever for Division II — there are more opportunities than ever before for a first-time winner to emerge. Three of the strongest candidates reside in the Midwest region: No. 3 Regis, coming off its third national semifinal appearance last spring; No. 7 Grand Valley State, coming off last year’s 17-2 campaign; and No. 8 Maryville, which has won 35 games the past two seasons.

Who is the next great scorer?

Division II said goodbye to three all-timers last season, as Hannah Stanislawczyk (West Chester), Emily Mitarotonda (East Stroudsburg) and Sydney Tiemann (Maryville) all concluded their careers. They left their collective mark on the NCAA Division II record book as three of the four all-time leading goal scorers. All three finished with over 300 career goals, a feat that had been done just once previously.

So, who’s next? Is there another scoring phenom that could join the 300-goal club in the near future?

Two candidates to watch are Hannah Guerin, a graduate transfer at Florida Southern, and Paige Murphy, a sophomore Canadian at Emmanuel (Ga.). Guerin joined the Mocs this spring after tallying 235 goals in four seasons at D-III Framingham State. As part of a potent FSC offense, a 65-goal season could be possible (she had 63, 76 and 69 in her last three years at FSU). Murphy is interesting because she’s only had one season in college, but she led the nation with 113 goals in 2024, the most scored by a freshman ever.

The chase begins.