Under-the-Radar Stars of the 2025 Division I Women's Lacrosse Season

There is great lacrosse being played from coast to coast and throughout every league in 2025.

With the calendar soon turning to April, it’s the perfect time to highlight some players who might be flying under the radar in Division I women’s lacrosse this spring.

The only way to solve that, of course, is to start talking about them. So let’s do that.

Jordyn Behar, Arizona State

Behar has powered Arizona State’s attack in a 7-4 start heading into Saturday’s Big 12 opener at home against Cincinnati. The junior has racked up 40 assists — tied for the most nationally as of Wednesday — and is third with 62 points. Behar’s per-game averages put her second in assists and seventh in points.

The two most notable parts of Behar’s offensive output in 2025? For one, she entered the season with 10 total points over 12 career games, due in part to a season-ending injury as a sophomore. The other is consistency. Behar has scored in every game, tallied at least one assist in every game, and has three or more points in all 11 contests.

Katie Kaucheck and Lilli Sherman, Ohio State

Ohio State’s defense, which is allowing just 7.4 goals per game even after surrendering 14 to Michigan on Thursday, has benefited been a combined effort, giving us an opportunity to highlight two of the Buckeyes’ contributors. The duo of Midwest upperclassmen has combined for 28 caused turnovers.

Kaucheck played in six games off the bench last season and has emerged as an anchor for the Buckeyes, who only just allowed double-digit goals for the first time in 10 games. Sherman was limited to 11 games in 2024 due to injury and has bounced back to help Ohio State to an 8-2 start.

Maya Kendall, Dartmouth

The Ivy League might be the nation’s most intriguing conference in 2025, with five of its eight members ranked or also considered in this week’s USA Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20. For Dartmouth to break through into that group and potentially the Ivy League tournament, it will start in the draw circle with Kendall.

Kendall has won 83.3 percent of draws this spring, good for second in Division I, and leads the country with 12.44 per game (officially, more on that below). The junior from Denver has secured 10 or more draws in seven of nine games and 15-plus four times. Kendall’s 22 draw wins against New Hampshire in February broke the Ivy record for a single game.

There are no nights off in the Ivy, and that includes Saturday’s visit from No. 19 Cornell, a strong team in its own right on the draw.

Claire Mahoney, Brown

Brown is one of those five Ivy members considered in this week’s Top 20, and Mahoney is a key part of why. The junior from Connecticut has posted a 6.77 goals-against average in the Bears’ 6-2 start that includes a three-goal win over Yale on the East Side last weekend that earned Brown a top-10 win on its resume.

Mahoney was absent for Brown’s setback to Boston College and returned in the second quarter of Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs with the Bears trailing 6-4. She responded to make 10 stops and hold Yale to five goals the rest of the way in a marquee comeback win.

Mahoney and the Bears will be right back at it on Saturday afternoon with a regionally televised contest against Harvard.

Nikki Mennella, Hofstra

A healthy Mennella has been due for a breakout season for the Pride. Now in her third season of competition, the Hofstra attacker had 29 points over six games as a true freshman before a season-ending injury. She returned a year later and tallied 42 points while limited to 13 contests.

The promise that was shown the first two years for Mennella is showing in the box score in 2025. The junior from Long Island is second nationally with 6.44 points per game on a balanced effort of 33 goals and 25 assists over nine contests. Mennella has seven or more points five times this year, including each of her first three games after missing the Pride’s opener to a 6-4 campaign so far.

Mennella matched her season-high with six goals against Elon last weekend and will be key to Hofstra’s efforts to return to the CAA tournament.

Ryleigh Cavanaugh and Luci Selander, Lindenwood

Players fly under the radar for a variety of reasons, but one of the strangest might be this: the statistics of teams reclassifying to Division I do not count toward NCAA national statistics rankings.

It’s an arcane policy, but it’s not going to stop us from highlighting two players helping grow Division I lacrosse in St. Charles, Missouri.

Let’s start with Ryleigh Cavanaugh, who has 118 draw controls over nine games — an average of 13.11 per game that should lead the nation. Cavanaugh produced a stretch to begin March of 17, 17 and 19 draws won for the Lions.

Luci Selander’s 54 points over nine contests would tie for fourth in the country if eligible. Selander’s nine goals on Saturday against Kennesaw State should give her credit for the most nationally but will not be credited in the NCAA single-game-high listings. Lindenwood is 8-1 to begin 2025.