Central Michigan University Athletics
Lacrosse Signs First Class
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Lacrosse
By Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Brand new program. A lot of fresh faces.
Twenty-six of them, in fact.
Central Michigan women's lacrosse coach Sara Tisdale announced her first recruiting class on Thursday. It comprises 26 players, all freshmen, representing 13 states and Canada.
"We went to great lengths to bring in players from all across the country to make this program really unique," said Tisdale, a CMU alum who was named the school's first women's lacrosse coach in mid July. "We have, literally, representation from coast to coast, north to south. So we have a goalie coming from California, we have an excellent midfielder coming in from Maryland, a great middie coming in from Florida. We've got our home-state players and kind of everything in between.
"These girls are coming from all different areas, all different backgrounds, so they're bringing all new ideas to the table, which I love."
The Chippewas will begin varsity play in spring, 2016, as members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Tisdale, a member of the lacrosse club when she was an undergrad at CMU, coached the club team at Michigan State from 2008-10, and started the program at Augustana (Ill.) College.
She led Augustana to a 51-8 mark over three seasons, including a 19-1 slate in 2013, when they won the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference regular-season and tournament championships, and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament where they bowed to eventual national champion Salisbury (Md.) College.
Having built the program from scratch at Augustana, Tisdale is familiar with the necessary building blocks and steps. She said communicating that to her signees, right from the get-go, was critical.
"We've had very frank conversations with every single one of these incoming players," she said. "We've said, 'This isn't going to be easy. We're going to have to work extremely hard to be the program we want to be in a year and a half from now.'
"I think they're all well aware of that and they're willing to work. I don't think anybody's coming in with a false idea of what this is going to be like. "
Tisdale said her prospective players have gotten a head start on team-bonding despite the fact that their arrival in Mount Pleasant is still nearly a year away.
"Whether they met here on recruiting visits, whether they've connected through social media, they've really formed a bond already," she said.
"I think what we really tapped into was this chemistry aspect of bringing in an entire class and, yes, they'll be young and yeah there'll be some growing pains.
"But I think overall this bond that they're going to share and the chemistry that's already been created is something that is really unique and is going to make us pretty special."
Tisdale said her first recruiting class fits the style she envisions her team playing: Fast.
"We have so many multi-sport athletes in this class," she said. "Lots of basketball players, lots of women who are still playing (high school) varsity basketball and varsity lacrosse, and that is a rare find, that double-varsity-sport athlete.
"We have a lot of field hockey players in this class as well, and soccer players. We have, I would say, one of the most athletic groups that I have ever brought in in any program that I've coached."
CMU is the third university in the state to offer women's lacrosse. Michigan and Detroit Mercy are the others.
"We really went fishing," Tisdale said, "and we threw ourselves out there and went after some of these players who were a part of the big-name clubs, some of the up-and-coming clubs, and we got to know different club coaches and high school coaches that I had never met before.
"That was really important to us, to get our name out there and to throw our hat in the ring with some of the established Division I programs. We fared pretty well against a lot of these programs.
"The level of excitement that exists already is pretty awesome."
2015-16 Lacrosse Recruiting Class
Summer Abdalla, Midfield, Stevensville, Mary., Kent Island HS
Mackenzie Baumgartner, Defense, Upper Arlington, Ohio, Upper Arlington HS
Holly Billet, Attack, Highlands Ranch, Colo., Mountain Vista HS
Natalie Bloniarz, Midfield, Okemos, Mich., Okemos HS
Mackenzie Burns, Attack, Littleton, Colo., Columbine HS
Madeline Canney, Midfield, Lakeville, Minn., Lakeville South HS
Samantha Cannon, Defense, Baldwinsville, N.Y., C.W. Baker HS
Katie Elwell, Goalie, Rockford, Mich., Rockford HS
Dominique Gibbons, Defense, Louisville, Ky., Eastern HS
Logan Halvorson, Midfield, Lakeville, Minn., Lakeville South HS
Dominique Hamman, Goalie, Walworth, N.Y., Wayne Central HS
Riley Huda, Attack, Lakeville, Minn., Lakeville North HS
Auguste Jepsen, Midfield, Oconomowoc, Wisc., Arrowhead HS
Kaitlyn Kimble, Midfield, Tampa, Fla., Newsome HS
Katie Kush, Attack, Pittsburgh, Penn., Oakland Catholic HS
Clare Laughery, Goalie, South Pasadena, Calif.,Aliso Niguel HS
Jocylene Lemay, Midfield, Peterborough Ont., Holy Cross Catholic SS
Rachel Morin, Attack, South Barrington, Ill., Barrington HS
Lizzie Navin, Midfield, Grafton, Mass., Grafton HS
Jane Nelson, Midfield, St. Louis, Mo., Ladue Horton Watkins HS
Katie Sharp, Attack, Manchester, Mo., Parkway South HS
Kelly Spehar, Defense, Rockford, Mich., Rockford HS
Kara Vana, Attack, Hartland, Wisc, Arrowhead HS
Cydney VanHoven, Defense, Grand Rapids, Mich., East Grand Rapids HS
Saidey Whalen, Defense, Charlotte, N.C., Charlotte Catholic HS
Sydney Wright, Midfield, Mason, Ohio, William Mason HS
