The Sunday Slide: March 26, 2023

It’s safe to say Jill Smith is the next Big Ten goal-scoring dynamo.

Smith had something of a ho-hum freshman season in 2022, a 14-game sample size in which she started four times and scored 15 goals. By no means was it a bad season. It just didn’t necessarily jump off the page.

She reintroduced herself to the women’s lacrosse world in the first few days of the season, dropping 11 goals on 20 shots combined against Jacksonville and Florida. The pace has slowed (who could blame her?), but Smith is still lethal.

It took her just four games to set a new career high in goals, and it took her just 11 games for another milestone — a much larger one. In Michigan’s 14-4 win over Rutgers, Smith scored four times to set the program’s single-season goals record. She added three more on Sunday against Xavier to give her 45.

Smith’s goals have been timely — she has three game-winning scores — and her shooting percentage has risen from 45.5 percent a year ago to 50.6 percent.

A 5-8 attacker from Farmington Hills, Michigan, Smith seems to be a hidden gem for head coach Hannah Nielsen. At 9-4, the Wolverines have proven a tough out. Somehow, there are just three games left in Michigan’s regular season, and the next two are biggies — against Maryland in College Park and at home against Penn State.

As always, thanks for reading The Sunday Slide. Hit me up with your comments (kdejohn@usalacrosse.com), and we can continue the conversation in next week’s column.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

The toughest stretch of Syracuse’s schedule is just ahead. After Cornell on Tuesday, the Orange host Virginia. On April 8, a Clemson team that is no longer surprising anyone welcomes them. Then, a must-see game against North Carolina on April 15 before the regular-season finale in the JMA Wireless dome on April 20 against Boston College.

Even if Syracuse drops one of these contests — or two of them, at worst — I’m still supremely confident in them heading into the NCAA tournament. The defense has exceeded all expectations, and the offense doesn’t need Meaghan Tyrrell to do everything.

Just look at Syracuse’s 16-11 win over Stony Brook from Wednesday. Tyrrell took just one shot, as she was effectively eliminated from the game. She did have two assists, but the offense completely ran through Emma Ward and her seven assists. Megan Carney and Emma Tyrrell shouldered the scoring load, combining for 10 goals. This team is dangerous.

While the ACC and Big Ten offer plenty of intrigue, I’m keeping a close eye on the Patriot League. Army is 9-0, while Loyola and Navy each have two losses — but each team is playing exceptionally well of late.

Army isn’t blowing anyone out, but the Black Knights are sturdy. Loyola is tenacious and skilled, and Navy is leaning on youngsters Ava Yovino and Leelee Denton to do damage. My gut tells me Loyola is probably still the team to beat, but this won’t be a cakewalk like it has been in recent history.

Make that 10 games without allowing more than nine goals for Denver. Seriously, is anyone going to reach double digits against the Pios? At this point, I see Stanford (April 14) and Marquette (April 29) as the biggest threats to Denver’s streak. Of course, anything can happen against any team. But what an absolute run through March.

That’s now nine wins for Marquette, which hasn’t exactly played a gauntlet of a schedule, to be fair. A 15-11 win over an ACC team like Louisville sure looked nice, and the Golden Eagles mostly hung with Northwestern in a 21-14 loss a few weeks back. One more win will tie a single-season program record, set in 2018.

The Golden Eagles are winning because Mary Schumar is doing an excellent job facilitating (40 assists), and she has several teammates capable of putting the ball away. It looks like Marquette is the No. 2 team in the Big East, but there’s a big gap between Denver.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

10 • Straight wins for James Madison, and guess what? The Dukes did it again. After ending their wins over Johns Hopkins and Florida on massive runs to win, JMU scored the final three goals against Virginia inside the last six minutes for a 10-8 win. The Dukes didn’t look great in the fourth quarter in the next game against Temple, as their 10-3 lead became another 10-8 final.

18 • Draws won by Syracuse’s Olivia Adamson last week, 12 against Stony Brook and six against Louisville. Syracuse rightfully faced draw questions with the season-ending injury to All-American Kate Mashewske. Well, crisis averted.

32 • Games that ended in running time (by 10 or more goals) in the past week. It’s not uncommon for the early stages of conference play to produce gaudy scores, but 32 is a lot of uncompetitive games.