This was the first time in the 3 games against NU that she was able to break out a bit. She score 2 goals and added 1 assist in the weekend series in March. So while the outcome wasn’t what they wanted, I’m sure it felt good for her to finally have a good game against the purple-people-eaters.

And the increase in shooting effectiveness seems to be down to genuine improvement in her shooting skill because after applying the shot quality filter, her excess goals / shot rating is net positive this year (+.01) after being net negative in every other year of her career up until now.

And when you consider the fact that Marist is the best defense that Siena has faced all season, this performance gets a little extra shine.

For the year, the thing that really stands out about McNeely’s improvement as a player is turnovers. Even after adjusted for a slightly lower play share this year, her turnover rate is a third less than it was in 2020. At .43, it’s the lowest mark she’s put up in her career. It’s an addition-by-subtraction sort of situation.

Chew on that. There will be a lot of eyes watching what she can do in the NCAAs.

Her game against Marist fairly normal for her in that she picked up 5 GBs for the 4th time this year. The difference, and what landed her on this list, was the opportunity she got on offense. This was the first game with double-digit shots (10) and the first game with over 4 goals (6). Add that all up and you get a slot on the EGA list.

(In other news, Marist’s defense, after having a very strong start to the year, is showing up quite a bit here as the opposing defense. Makes you wonder if there are some tired legs brewing there.)

As with so many other performances that make it to this list, it was the combination of possession-gaining GBs and fairly typical scoring that earned her a spot here. This game was the 3rd time she posted 6 goals.

If anything, she is probably kicking herself over the 6 turnovers, which was a season high. In fact, the entire team was a bit loose with the ball in this one. They turned it over on 36.2% of their possessions, which was the 2nd highest raw turnover rate of the year.

If Stony Brook is going to make noise in May, they’ll need more games like this from her.

And her shooting percentage is up nearly 10 percentage points (44.4% this year vs 34.7% last year). Also good. But her turnover rate is up substantially (.86 this year vs .55 last year). The deeper roster suggests that some of the pressure has been taken off of her this season. That explains the higher shooting percentage, but not the higher turnover rate.