This past weekend brought the first full weekend of NCAA lacrosse, and every team in NCAA Division I has now played a game. With that being the case, we now have data from every team.
On the men’s side, 222 Canadians will represent Division I teams this Spring. Of that group, 148 hail from Ontario, 53 from British Columbia, and 16 from Alberta. Three players represent Quebec this year. Canisius LSM Alexis Simard is from Terrebonne, and he is joined by Zach Miller (Rosmere) for Queen’s North Carolina, and Tristan Leblac (Ormstown) at Stony Brook.
After the NLL hosted their UnBOXed series in Montreal, it is an exciting time to be a lacrosse fan from La Belle Province. Kudos to everyone who has contributed to the development of lacrosse in that region.
Speaking of development, Nate Watson of Quispamsis, New Brunswick is set to compete for Quinnipiac this season. Watson joins Hannah Kent (Ostrea Lake, Nova Scotia) on the women’s side as representatives from the maritimes. As far as I know, they are the first maritimers in Division I. As a fan of the sport in Canada, that is awesome.
Lastly, Cayden Onagi (Headingley, Manitoba) is back for his second year under Coach Tillman with the Terps.
Fans of Canadian players should keep an eye on a few specific teams. Robert Morris leads the division with 15 Canadians, followed by St. Bonaventure (12), Johns Hopkins (10), Queens Charlotte (eight) and the Cornell Big Red (eight).
I have decided to set up a landing page for fans to keep track of the statistics. They will be updated every Wednesday and Sunday morning and will live permanently on Lacrosse Culture Daily. The weekly article and Newsletter (launching next week!) will serve to highlight key developments throughout the week.
You can find that page here.
Looking at last week, congratulations are particularly in order for Payton Cormier. Payton became the all-time leader in goals at Virginia on the weekend, breaking a 25 year old record. This is an incredible accomplishment, and Payton still has plenty of time to widen his lead. Congrats PC!
At High Point, Brayden Mayea (Windsor, Ontario) scored 8 goals and 11 points for the Panthers, both school records. He even found his way onto SportsCenter as well!
At Cornell, rookie sensation Willem Firth (Ottawa, Ontario) made a splash in his college debut, scoring 4 goals for the Big Red in their victory over Lehigh. Speaking of Cornell, Jack Follows (Oakville, Ontario) was stout at close defence, while Andy Dalton and Rory Graham (both from Toronto, Ontario) played important roles in the Cornell offence.
Bouncing around the division, Delaware sniper Mike Robinson (Peterborough, Ontario) is off to an incredible start to his season, with 14 goals in just two games played. Meanwhile at UAlbany, Silas Richmond (Delta, British Columbia) got out to a fast start as well, adding four goals in his first game of the season.
On the defensive side of the ball, Mitchell Dunham (Hamilton, Ontario) leads the Canadian gentlemen in Caused Turnovers with 9 caused turnovers for Mount St. Mary’s. Levi Verch (Victoria, British Columbia) leads the group in loose balls with 13 to go along with six caused turnovers. Meanwhile, Bellarmine’s Denton Macdonald (also from Victoria) is second in both loosies and Caused Turnovers with 12 and 6 respectively.
When thinking of ways to make this column original every week, I spent some time looking at shooting percentage. One of the hallmarks of the Canadian skillset, efficient shooting is a result of many facets of the Canadian lacrosse community.
Shooting high percentages takes toughness, skill, lacrosse IQ, and aggression. Below is a chart of every player in our dataset that has taken more than five shots this season. The Canadians are highlighted in red. Obviously the sample size is small, but as you can see, there are Canadians leading the way nationally in both goals and shooting percentage.
A particular shoutout goes to Arthur Miller (Nanoose Bay, British Columbia) who has scored on 10 of his first 19 shots for the NJIT Highlanders. Miller is off to a great start!
Jumping to the women’s side, the Canadian women continue to impress. Last week, I wrote about Lindenwood’s Alissa Digiacinto (Brooklin, Ontario) who continues her strong season, now with 10 goals in three games. Joining her with ten goals is Nicole Perroni (Whitby, Ontario) of Louisville and Jillian Goldie (Owen Sound, Ontario) who has started her career off well for the UMass Lowell River Hawks.
To the same point as the chart above, Digiacinto and Goldie have scored their ten goals on 13 and 14 shots respectively. Wow.
They are followed in goals by Towson’s Milana Zizakovic (Calgary, Alberta) who has added 9 goals in two games. The Albertan had 6 in their season opening win against Mount St. Mary’s.
Kassidy Morris (Washago, Ontario) is tied with Goldie for the lead in assists with four. Following them is Jami MacDonald, who started her year off with a goal and 3 assists for the Princeton Tigers.
Kylea Dobson (Oshawa, Ontario) has the most loose balls of the group, scooping up 9 in just four games. Meanwhile the aforementioned Perroni easily leads the way in Caused Turnovers, chipping in 10. Gigi Gaspar (Burnaby, British Columbia) of Arizona State, and Syracuse’s Bianca Chevarie (Brantford, Ontario) both have four CT’s.
Like the men, the women’s stats will be available permanently on a landing page which can be found here. It will be updated on Sundays and Wednesdays.
That’s all for this week. Good luck to all the Canadians!
You forgot to mention that there are also 6 Canadians playing for NCAA Div. 1 Men’s Lacrosse for Mercer University in Macon Georgia: 5 from Ontario and 1 from Alberta.
Thanks Dan! They’re included in the table!
https://lacrosseculturedaily.com/2024/01/01/canadians-in-the-ncaa-stats-page/
Thank you for the clarification and information.
Hi Jon, just an awesome commentary and show case for our athletes, your passion and dedication is applauded by all who are associated with our great game. After watching my son play for the minto cup( Edmonton) 4 of those student athletes play for Tusculum University Div 2 in Tennessee. It might surprise you how many more Canadian players are among those Divisions and continuing their athletics/academic opportunities. Thank you for what you are Doing.
Jon – Amazing work in cataloguing the 222 Canadians on D1 lacrosse rosters. As a former D1 lacrosse student-athlete (Princeton’84), I argue that many of these student-athletes would be better off staying in Canada to play in the CUFLA, especially once the family’s « NCAA fever » with dreams of playing in a Final 4 have worn off and they realize that they can often get a superior education (McGill, U of Toronto, Queen’s, etc.) on home soil. The McGill «NCAA transfer portal » is currently open for honor roll students…ironically, McGill’s 2023-24 roster featured 50% Americans —- headed north in the opposite direction! – Tim Murdoch (Head Coach, Men’s Lacrosse, McGill U. 2003-2019)