Whether you are a lacrosse fan or not, you have to feel a bit sorry for the state of Maryland in last weekend’s national spotlight. The University of Maryland Men’s and Women’s lacrosse teams both lost in Division I national semifinals, while the Salisbury University Men’s team, looking for a third straight Division III title, was beaten in its national final.
All the news, however, was not all doom and gloom in Maryland, especially for a pair of former John Carroll athletes.
Caroline Sdanowich and Charlotte Haggerty, both Bel Air residents, celebrated a National Women’s Division I Lacrosse Championship Sunday at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York.
The two women are teammates on the James Madison University team that defeated Boston College, 16-15, Sunday for the school’s first such national title.
“Obviously, it is incredible, I never honestly thought that I would be in the national championship or a national champion,” Haggerty said. Haggerty, a freshman, saw time in the game as a midfielder, but eventually came on to play defense for a lengthy time when a teammate was ejected with a pair of yellow cards.
Sdanowich, a junior starting defender, was equally excited. “I think it feels really good just because that’s just something we’ve been working at our whole time we’ve been there,” Sdanowich said. “It just felt even better because we were the number three seed, but nobody thought we should be the number three seed. So we just kept working and our hard work just showed that we actually should have been the number one seed.”
Sdanowich was credited with one ground ball in Sunday’s win.
The two players were teammates for two years at John Carroll as well, but their friendship was made at an earlier age and both were happy to share the title together.
“I think it was really special because I’ve known Charlotte since we were really young,” Sdanowich said. “And it was really special because ever since we both were in high school, and then I went to college, we still work out at the same place and we’ve always kind of been together and it’s really special because we played club together, high school and now college.”
Haggerty agreed. “It was awesome, when I got there it was so nice to have her, a familiar face, and someone I have known basically for almost all my life,” Haggerty said. “My sister and her sister were good friends and our family has always been in the same area with lacrosse. So, it was super nice having her in the pre-season, in the fall,. We were always in the same running group and we always pushed each other. We were close, but our relationship definitely grew. She always pushed me to do better than I thought I could and it was definitely nice having here there.”
Haggerty, as just the freshman, understands how special this is and what it means for the future. “It’s definitely going to be hard to top it, this was an incredible freshman year. I can’t even explain it, really,” she said.
Sdanowich, the junior felt this was a special year. “I think, just when we started, we knew that this team was really special, just in the Fall,” she said. “Our work ethic and just how much we bonded and how close our team was, I think we knew something was really special. When we came out and won our first game against UNC (North Carolina), I think we really knew this team was going to make it far.”
Sdanowich is majoring in Health Services Administration and Haggerty is majoring in Biology