Two rookie lefty feeders have helped the Navy women’s lacrosse team to its first final four.

First, there’s Kelly Larkin, a freshman attacker, who has the second-most points with 102, a nearly perfect balance of 48 goals and a team-high 54 assists.

“As a freshman, I guess I didn’t have anything to live up to, but this is definitely going to set some good standards for the next years I have at Navy,” Larkin said. “It’s really exciting.”

Then there’s her offensive coordinator and mentor, Aly Messinger, who is in first year of coaching. Messinger was a three-time All-American at North Carolina before jumping on as an assistant at Navy.

“I can’t even remember my freshman year that well,” Messinger said. “She honestly probably has the better freshman year… so far.”

So far because Messinger finished off her freshman year at UNC with a season-high three goals as the Tar Heels won the national championship title. Last year, Messinger was named the Most Outstanding Player from the final four after helping the Tar Heels win again to bookend her career.

“In the semifinals for UNC, I remember thinking if it wasn’t for Aly, they wouldn’t have won the game,” Larkin said. “If she wasn’t scoring, she was feeding, so I think she’s definitely an inspiration to look up to, especially because she was a left-handed attacker, a lot like me, playing behind the cage, working it around.

“I like to try to take in all the knowledge that Aly has just from her experience and she’s a brilliant lacrosse coach. She has a lot of lax IQ, so I try to take a lot of the stuff she has to say and use it when I’m on the field. A lot of the girls look like they’re doing the same and it’s working. Aly’s been really awesome. We’ve been lucky to have her this year.”

Messinger has gone from playing in the final four last year to coaching in it this year. Navy will take on Boston College, a team that it lost to 20-11 early in the year, in the semifinals Friday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

“They’ve obviously asked me some questions about it,” Messinger said. “They’re getting really excited. I think it’s kind of cool that it’s their first time. It really brings the excitement all over again. It’s super fun to be a part of.”

Messinger knows well what it takes to win, which helped her gain immediate respect even as a young coach. At 22 years old, she is younger than some Navy seniors. Messinger graduated with two national titles, and ranked second in career assists and third in career points at UNC. She talked to a few other programs as she looked to get into coaching, but found the best fit at Navy under Cindy Timchal.

“I don’t think the phrase is ‘take a risk’ because I knew Aly as a recruit,” said the Hall of Fame head coach. “I recruited her to the Naval Academy. She and her family came. Her older sister played at Carolina so I knew it would be likely that’s where she would go. She excelled there not only as a player but as a team winning two of the four national championships in the years she was there.

“I think this was a wonderful opportunity for her. The moment she came on campus to chat about the position, I just knew this was the right fit. We just knew. It was a little surreal actually. What makes her an outlier is she’s so young and right out of college, but she’s mature, she takes the game seriously and you could just watch last year’s championship game to understand her maturity level and how she led the team last year with her teammates to a championship. I wanted that type of person involved with our program.”

Messinger’s hire has born results, and Timchal is quick to credit her new assistant. The Mids’ 343 goals and 181 assists are both Navy single-season records.

“Our offense has been good for a while,” Timchal said. “It’s just little tweaks in what we do and how we approach each game and we’ve done more studying of opposing defenses. I think the little tweaks and players that have been on the team together for a couple years are just meshing together as a unit.”

PHOTO BY ANDY MEAD

Messinger attributes the jump in scoring in part to the addition of the shot clock, but Navy’s rankings are up more significantly than other teams nationwide from a year ago. Being third in the country in draw controls helps them gain plenty of possession, and Messinger has preached being efficient with their opportunities. After being 35th in the country in scoring offense a year ago, the Mids are ninth this year thanks to a 38 percent increase in scoring. Jenna Collins is second in the nation in points, and Larkin, Morgan Young and Julia Collins all rank in the top 53 individually.

“The biggest thing with my experience as a player, I really wanted as a coach to bring this team together, to make it a unit where everyone has their special part and having all those special parts mesh together into something that is very fluid, very together, very selfless,” Messinger said. “I think the girls have done an amazing job of becoming that type of unit and I think it’s really helped us.”

Navy’s unselfishness reflects their offensive coordinator’s own playing style. Players are looking for each other when they don’t have a good shot.

“When I get the ball,” Larkin said, “I always look to dodge to be a threat, but I also have my eyes up looking for girls cutting down the middle because we have such great cutters on our team and such great finishers. Playing with the Collins twins and Morgan Young, they’re always getting open and most of the time, especially when Jenna cuts, I just kind of throw the ball and trust that she’s got it. Having that trust in each other and having that chemistry really helps.”

The Mids are fifth nationally in assists per game after they were 43rd a year ago. They are eighth in shots per game.

“I would like to give credit and I think good coaches give credit,” Timchal said. “It comes down to the players and in this case Aly has done well on the offensive end, Gabby Capuzzi on the defensive end, and Matt Holman with the goalies, it’s the whole package.”

The Navy offense has looked especially effective in the NCAA tournament and continuing that will be critical in the Final Four. Their 16 goals against North Carolina in Saturday’s quarterfinal win were the most that the Tar Heels surrendered in a game this year. The 23 goals they scored against UMass were five more than the Minutewomen had ever allowed. And even scoring 12 goals against Penn in the first round was a lot against the country’s No. 5 scoring defense. They’ll try to do the same against Boston College.

“One thing we’re going to definitely look at is more dodging, more cutting, just harder cuts off the looks and all of us working together and just a lot of fluid team movement,” Larkin said. “The first time we had a lot of individual dodging but I think over the last few months, we’ve gotten a lot better at working and moving as a team.”

Larkin, the Patriot League Rookie of the Year, keeps the Navy offense clicking. She came in as a US Lacrosse All-American out of Bishop Ireton and adjusted quickly to the faster pace. She scored seven points in her collegiate debut, and sat second in the country among freshmen in points at the close of the regular season. In the NCAA tournament, she has averaged six points per game.

“It’s a good feeling to know your teammates are looking to cut for you and knowing you have a great pass that leads into a great goal, I do feel is more exciting for me,” Larkin said. “And it’s good to know you’re working as a team and you have other girls that are being good teammates. I like the selfless role of being able to see the girls get open. On my club team, I did a little bit of both. It’s always good to play the dual role of both shooting and feeding.”

Messinger played that role at UNC, and Larkin was well aware of the standards that her new coach would have.

“I felt a little bit of pressure just because of the similarities we have,” Larkin said. “I knew Aly was going to have high expectations for me and a little more focus on me than the other girls just because of the experience she had doing the same things I do. There was a little pressure, but at the same time Aly was always willing to work with me any time I needed help. She has great insight obviously because she did the exact same thing but probably a little better than I’ve been doing.”

Messinger has been emphasizing that Larkin shoot as well as she feeds. Messinger sees a lot in Larkin, and that’s why she has demanded so much of her.

“I was definitely tough on her,” Messinger said. “I tried not to be harsh, and sometimes I was a little harsh with her. But it was solely because I saw the potential in her. She has unbelievable potential and I knew she was a great high school player, and I could see the things she could be good at. I definitely rode her hard, and she got better, and I don’t do it as much anymore which is great.”

PHOTO BY ANDY MEAD

Larkin has the freshman record and is fourth all-time in points in a season at Navy. She has learned to be more patient with her feeding and what play is dictated by the defense. Her decision-making his improved throughout the season.

“She has grown so much throughout this year,” Messinger said. “We’ve worked really hard at getting her to be a super dynamic player, someone who can feed from that left side whenever there’s an opening, or go to goal when she has it. Having that lefty threat, I think, is really important to meshing an entire offensive unit together. She’s done an unbelievable job the last couple weeks and has just really grown as a player. It’s super exciting. I do see some tendencies that I used to do. It’s awesome. It’s really rewarding for me to see that.”

Messinger is hoping the parallels won’t end this weekend. She’d love to see Larkin and her teammates enjoy a national championship title in her first year at Navy.

“We need everyone being a key part,” Messinger said. “There can’t just be one person here having a good day, and one person having a good day there. We’re in the Final Four now and we need every single person to be on the same page and everyone being someone who can score, someone who can assist, someone who can make an impact on our team. I thought we’ve done a great job of that the last couple weeks, and that’s really where we’ve been having success. If we can continue to do that, and even do it better than last week, hopefully we’ll have a great weekend.”

PHOTO BY RICH BARNES