Exactly the Same, Only Different

Early in the morning on Sunday, April 2, the Jacksonville University women’s lacrosse gathered in the Rock Lacrosse Center to discuss what had just taken place less than 24 hours before. A day earlier, JU fell at home to Liberty, a loss that was not only record-breaking, snapping a 22-game ASUN Conference winning streak and the first home conference set-back since 2010, but also turned out to be team-building. No coaches, that would come later. Just a team, digging-deep together to find themselves.

“We all came in here that Sunday, the whole team, and sat in this film room and we watched the entire game,” said graduate defensive stalwart Maddie Sturgell. “We spent three to four hours dissecting the entire game without the coaching staff, because we knew that it was not going to come from them, it was going to come internal, from our locker room, with help of the coaches.”

“I think that was a really telling moment that they were in this and that they were going to do everything that they could to ensure that nothing like that ever happened again,” said first year head coach Tara Singleton.

This team was different. The program’s founder and only head coach had moved on the previous May and several players, whose names were etched in the record book and had helped lead the program to its greatest highs in recent seasons, had exhausted eligibility. This year’s group, tested by a high-level non-conference schedule, had already suffered six defeats by April 1, more than any women’s lacrosse squad at JU had in a full season since 2017.

Those differences ended up propelling the 2023 Dolphins to familiar heights, albeit while taking a much different path. And that players-only meeting showed the team how it was able to take the adversity it faced on-the-field and channel it into learning opportunities.

Back in June of 2022, when Singleton was hired after a decorated career as an assistant coach at multiple lacrosse powerhouses, she quickly recognized that she needed to lean on those who knew what it took to succeed at JU to continue the program’s success. That included empowering her team captains and leaders who had helped make up the recent teams that had achieved NCAA tournament success and retaining Assistant Coach Mike Bedford, who had served on staff for two seasons prior to Singleton taking over.

“I don’t know if it was the easiest change for them to see, with me coming in here,” recalled Singleton. “They didn’t have to jump on the bandwagon and I feel like they have learned to do that as we’ve gone through this season and I don’t know if it would have been so easy if we didn’t have such tremendous leadership in place.”

“I adjusted my role, learning all about Coach Tara and Coach Molly [Little] and what they were about, what their values were, what they wanted to bring to this program, what they wanted this program to be so that I could emulate that as a leader,” said Sturgell, who has served as a captain for the past four seasons. “We knew it was going to be a new year, we did not want to keep referring to years past, this was a new slate, a new team.”

“Our experience has really helped us throughout this whole season, having a bunch of fifth-year seniors,” said graduate attack Sarah Elms, the all-time points record holder in JU history. “We really lean on each other, really support each other, give it to each other a lot at practice.”

The initial buy-in helped lay the groundwork for success in the fall, but there were still challenges once the season began. A gauntlet of non-conference games to start the season resulted in an 0-3 start, before Singleton earned her first career win with a victory over a ranked Stanford squad.

“Once we got that win and Coach Tara got her first win as a head coach, that was a big moment for us and truly celebrating her, and we kept that rolling throughout the season,” said Sturgell. “Starting 0-3 wasn’t easy for us, but I think we really dug ourselves out of that hole and had those challenges so now, where we are at today, we’ve learned from them.”

“I knew it was going to come, I just didn’t know when. I prepped for those early games as if those were going to be wins. We had to find a way to dig deep and respond and that is what this team did,” said Singleton.

The rest of the early part of the season featured games with the likes of Arizona State, Penn and Navy, after opening with a Big Ten stretch featuring Michigan and Rutgers. But, that rigorous scheduling was intentional, meant to battle-test a group for an expected NCAA tournament run.

“The schedule was truly to put us in a situation where we are building our confidence for one, but [also] trying to figure out our identity,” Singleton said. “I still think we could have and should have won some of those games earlier on, but that was stuff that we needed to learn and work through.”

“That kind of non-conference schedule is something that we’ve known we needed,” Sturgell commented. “When it comes to the NCAA tournament and you’re playing a Friday and Sunday with two hard competitors, that is stuff you have to set up in the non-conference season to be ready for that when it comes to the NCAA.”

An easy win at Delaware State to start ASUN play was part of a stretch in which JU won five of six, and things appeared to be right back on track. What followed was a loss to a talented Denver squad to close the out-of-conference portion of the schedule and the Liberty loss, which sparked the introspection that helped shift the entire season.

“We realized that it is not something that is just going to be given to us, we know we have to walk in and earn it,” said Sturgell. “People want to beat us and we have a target on our back.”

“It was a tough pill to swallow, but it was probably one of the best things to happen to us because it really did force us to take a hard look at ourselves and recognize that while there is amazing history here, this year is just that, this year,” commented Singleton.

JU did not lose again to a conference foe after that fateful day. It closed the regular season winning its last five ASUN games and entered the ASUN Women’s Lacrosse Championship as the #2 seed, behind only Liberty, which finished the regular season unbeaten. After dispatching #3 seed Coastal Carolina in the semifinals, a championship final rematch with the Flames awaited, carrying with it more storylines than you could imagine. It was a fourth-consecutive matchup between the two programs in the final, Liberty had finally cleared the hurdle of beating Jacksonville earlier in the season, and now JU was looking to enact revenge after the Flames ended its conference win-streak and incredible nine-year reign as the ASUN regular season champions. Of course, the game delivered, and went into overtime before JU’s Brianna Samuels struck with a golden goal to win it, 14-13.

“That was a really important moment in the season for me, in my career I’ve never had a group of girls that has wanted it so badly that we’ve come in here on an off-day to watch that entire game back because we just experienced that tough loss,” Sturgell said. “I think that is what set us forward. We wanted Liberty’s best game and they brought it and we brought our best as well.”

The Dolphins earned a ninth ASUN championship, setting up another familiar script, albeit with another twist featuring a familiar foe. JU is headed to Gainesville, Florida for the first round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship for the third-straight season, but this time drew #6-overall seed Florida in the first round after matching up with them in the round of 16 each of the last two years. It is also a rematch from the regular season, with the Gators the last team to beat the Dolphins, a 16-11 win at Rock Stadium back on April 26. JU has already flipped the script from the regular season once this season, can it do it again?

“People can make physical adjustments, but I think the mental adjustments are just as important,” said Elms. “We were able to do that from the first Liberty game to the second and I am hoping that we are able to do that from the first Florida game to the second.”

“I think we’re ready for it,” said Sturgell. “Even though it is a team we have played before and we are excited to see them again, it is not really about them. It is about how we cut ourselves short in that regular season game.

“Having the week of practice and having the luxury of just a short bus ride down to Gainesville, being in our home state still and being used to the weather, we’ve played on this grass before, really does give us an advantage and I think this team is something special and it is definitely going to be a good game on Friday,” she continued.

On the surface, another ASUN championship and NCAA tournament run make this season for JU women’s lacrosse feel like many of the others before it. The path taken there was decidedly different, and this year’s group is hoping that the rest of the story features a new ending as well. Each of the last two year’s teams saw their seasons end in Gainesville vs. Florida, but there is enough evidence now to show that this group could be the one to break through and write a new chapter for the legacy of women’s lacrosse at JU.

“It has just been really special that we’ve had this tough season and we’ve come out on top in our last game to win the ASUN,” said Elms. “Having a close game this past Saturday and showing that toughness throughout the whole game and coming out with the win is only going to help us in the postseason.”

For Singleton, the opportunity to get back to the tournament for the first time as an auto-qualifier since she was a player carries its own unique joy, and that it came in her first go-round as a head coach makes it that much more special.

“This is what I remember as a player working towards. We’ve fought to be together, we know we have this week, we know we are guaranteed one game and that is all we can focus on,” she said. “I love that we get to do this together. This is exactly what we talked about from the first day I got here.”

In the end, the lumps and bruises, battle-earned scars and tough conversations have all lead to one thing: a unique path back to a familiar place.

“It has given us a lot of strength and courage. We’ve had to go through adversity, we had to deal with situations that we didn’t think we’d be in,” remarked Sturgell. “I think that has made us stronger to where we are today and has definitely shaped this team vs. where it was almost a year ago.”