Lemay, Lacrosse Program Come Of Age

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Lacrosse at Central Michigan has changed tremendously in the past four years.

So has a pillar of its first recruiting class, Jocelyne Lemay.

"The first time I visited here, I remember walking past the field and there was nothing here but grass," Lemay says while sitting in the team room at the CMU Lacrosse/Soccer Complex. "We passed the pavement and they just pointed at an open field and they were like, 'This is where your field is going to be.'

"You had to imagine it."

Today, Lemay is a senior, one of a dozen on the Chippewa roster. She has been a critical element on the field and off. Her name is at the top, or close to it, of nearly every relevant career, season and game statistical program record.

She was a key ingredient last spring when the Chippewas won their first championship, the Southern Conference regular-season title. In just three years of existence, CMU lacrosse has gone from six wins to seven to 11 and a title.

CMU's 5-7 record in 2019 includes victories over established programs in Cincinnati and Marquette, two teams the Chippewas had never beaten in a combined six meetings from 2016-18.

"We had to take the fall in the last couple of years to learn and move forward," Lemay says. "It's paying off now."

Tangible results one can point to. Yet it's perhaps been those that are less easy to define that show in Lemay as she has matured from a face in the crowd of a large group of wide-eyed freshman who came to Mount Pleasant in 2016 to a team captain and the prototype student-athlete around whom coach Sara Tisdale has, and will continue, to build.

"I was never the one who spoke up in a group of people," Lemay said. "This year was a turning point for me of being confident of myself and my abilities and my leadership. I've learned that if I'm not going to do it, who is? … People depend on you; that's the biggest takeaway I've learned.

"I think that comes with not only leadership but with experience of not panicking. When seniors panic, everyone panics. I think in those tight situations, it's about relaxing and taking deep breaths. It's something you learn from experience. You can't teach that."

Central Michigan University Athletics

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