Five Things: Could Lyght Become the First 3X Schmeisser Winner?

After graduating some of the best players in program history, there are some questions going into the season for Notre Dame. Luckily, deciding who will cover the other team’s best player won’t be one of them. 

It is hard to overstate just how good freshman defender Shawn Lyght was last season. He was named to the NCAA all-tournament team and was named a second team All-American by the USILA and a third-teamer by Inside Lacrosse. Those lists were voted on after the regular season, and he surely would have been higher after the postseason.

In the ACC Tournament, he held Connor Shellenberger and Andrew Macadorey scoreless in back to back games as the Irish cruised to the championship and also led the nation in scoring defence.

Lyght was part of a remarkable unit, including Liam Entenmann, one of the best college goaltenders of all time. But Lyght covered several of the best players in the nation last year and succeeded at an incredible rate, especially for a first year player. 

That begs the question, could Lyght become the first player to ever win the William C. Schmeisser award (given to the nation’s top defender) three times in a career? To do it, he would have to win the award this year, along with the following two. Let’s look into the evidence. 

And in case you missed yesterday’s article, find the whole series here!

Who Has Done It? 

The first thing to consider is history, as the Schmeisser award skews heavily towards veteran players. No other player has ever won the award three times, and only a select crew of legends have ever done it twice. 

The first man to win it twice was Hank Kaestner of Johns Hopkins, who won the award in 1966 and 1967. Cornell’s Chris Kane did it in 1977 and 1978 as part of the two Cornell National Championship teams who had one of the best runs in the history of the sport. That was immediately followed by Mark Greenberg of Hopkins, who won the Schmeisser in 1979 and 1980. 

Another back-to-back streak came in the mid 1980’s when Tom Haus (UNC) won the award in 1986 and 1987, followed by Dave Pietremala who took it home in 1988 and 1989. 

Princeton’s David Morrow brought the award back to the Ivy League in 1992 and 1993. 

Then two players have accomplished the feat twice in the 2000’s. Tucker Durkin became the third Blue Jay to do it in 2012 and 2013, while Matt Landis took it home for Notre Dame in 2015 and 2016. 

Considering the award has been handed out since 1942 (which significantly predates NCAA sanctioned lacrosse), that is not very many players. 

Who is Competing for it? 

Helping the case for Lyght is the departure of talent on the defensive side of the ball over the last few years. Gavin Adler (a former Schmeisser winner himself) was selected with the first overall selection in the 2023 PLL draft, followed by Owen Grant and Brett Makar. 

Ajax Zapitello was one of the best college defenders ever but never actually won the Schmeisser, in part because he was named National Player of the year last season. Jake Piseno did win the Schmeisser and was also a first round PLL draft pick who had 19 points and 44 CT’s last season, a remarkable year for a defender. Fellow 2024 first-team All-American Kenny Brower also took his talents to the pros after an outstanding career, while fellow ACC standout Cole Kastner is playing basketball at Stanford. 

It can be argued though that Lyght may not even be the favourite. Penn’s Brendan Lavelle was a USILA first team All-American last season, as was Hopkins standout Scott Smith. Lavelle notably won both of his matchups against Cornell’s CJ Kirst, one of the only defenders in the country to have any success against the Lefty. Smith helped Hopkins return to the final eight. 

Army’s AJ Pilate, Syracuse’s Billy Dwan, Georgetown’s Ty Banks, Saint Joseph’s Levi Verch, and UVA LSM Ben Wayer are also all candidates. 

What does it take? 

Lyght certainly has the talent to win it this year, but there is a lot more that goes into it.

Defensive awards will always be tougher for voters than offensive ones. While not necessarily a perfect strategy, offensive players will always be compared by their goals, assists, and points. 

Winning the Schmeisser is a more complicated process that requires players to have great performances in big moments, and get some other luck.

Lets just consider one aspect of this process, which is the number of variables that go into opposition scoring. Lyght held Shellenbeger scoreless last season in the ACC tournament, which obviously is an incredible feat. But that performance required a number of factors to go his way, including the fact that Shellenberger did not score on EMO or in transition, ND did not leave any cutters wide open for easy assists, and they were never able to capitalize off a switch. That’s all aside from the obvious impact that goaltending has on the numbers.

To win the Schmeisser, you need a lot of these factors to align in your favour. That’s a lot outside of your control. 

You also need people to notice. This historically has meant you need to dominate your matchups during the big TV games. In more recent history, that can also include your performances getting picked up and publicized by one of the growing number of lacrosse social media accounts. 

This is a good example. 

There aren’t many small schools listed in the history of the Schmeisser. You need to perform on the biggest stages. And you need to dominate matchups while hoping the rest of your team defence can limit star players in other game situations. 

And lastly, there is the psychology of voted awards. Voters are likely (sub-consciously or consciously) to give a tie to the graduating player. In order to win it this year, Lyght will have to clearly outplay the other candidates.

Offensive players can overcome a bad game or two with monster performances on other days. The margin for the Schmeisser is a lot thinner. 

At Notre Dame, Lyght had and will have those opportunities to play on national television. But so will Lavelle, Pilate, Smith, Dwan and others.

Could Lyght win it and set up three in a row? He definitely could. Whether he does will depend on a few key matchups when the nation is watching.