Each week, we will look back at the games that were to see which players had the largest individual performances. I say largest because the contributions that we can measure (from play by play) tend to be things that are easy to count. This includes, goals, shots, assists, turnovers, penalties, etc. We can’t measure a defender who shuts down an opposing player so completely that she doesn’t even touch the ball. Still, it is interesting to be able to identify the players that really filled it up each weekend and give them a shout out here.
For a bit of background, in order to rank single game performances, we needed a way to condense box score stats to a single number for each player. In order to do this, we relied on our expected goal values methodology, which assigns a goal value to each type of play depending on how often it leads to a goal in the next 60 seconds. By adding up all the expected goals added for each player, we can get to that single number and these rankings.
We have also tagged each performance with the opponent’s ELO rating. The higher the number, the stronger the opponent. This should help to give some context for each performance. Did the player feast on the dregs of D1 or did they put up these numbers against a quality opponent?
Click on any player’s name or the PRO logo () and you’ll head straight to the detailed breakdown on their LacrosseReference PRO page. As opposed to last year, all players appearing in the weekly rundown are unlocked and the information on their page is available to all readers.
Full stat sheet for Vinall against GWU. The 12 draw controls was a season high and an 80% shooting mark shows how efficient her game was. Shooting has been her strength this season. At 60%, her mark puts her in the 91st percentile. At 3-3, American currently has a 29% chance of making the conference tournament. If they do, expect Vinall to be a big part of it.
Marist gets on the board with their first win this season. The key stat for them seems to be draw controls. This was the first game that they won over 50% and it was the first game that they had a possession advantage.
For Gutenberger, it’s now been three straight games with a shooting percentage over 50%. The LIU performance was actually her worst shooting percentage of the year (58%), but she took more shots in this game than she did in the previous two combined. The result is a season-high 8.61 EGA game that had to feel good for her.
#3 – Siena Gore (Kennesaw State) – 7.86 goals added
Mar 5 vs Wofford Opp ELO: 947
Another huge game for Gore in the win over Wofford. And it was a huge game for KSU overall with a season high 44.9% offensive efficiency.
Contrast this game with the KSU game against Florida. Those are their two lowest turnover rate games of the year (26% in each), but against the Gators, they shot just 39%. Against Wofford, that mark was 56%. Just goes to show that efficiency is the target; turnover rate, shooting percentage and shots/possession are the ways you get there.
The Temple offense is currently 16th nationally in adjusted offense. But the trend line isn’t great. As they’ve played some tougher defenses, the efficiency has dropped sub-30%.
I’ll be curious to see if they can get their ball security issues under control. They are 56th in turnover rate this year and that’s leading to a lot of empty possessions.
KSU is not a bad defense (they rank 66th in adjusted defense), but the Owls play Rutgers next and that’s going to be a much stiffer test.
Welcome to the weekly EGA list Blair Pearre. Her first ever appearance comes thanks to 13 draw controls and 5 goals on 6 shots against SJU. This game was a bit of a breather for the Tigers after playing Michigan, Loyola and Mount St Mary’s, which rank 7th, 16th and 29th on defense respectively.
Despite ranking 38th in raw offensive efficiency, after we apply the opponent adjustments, the Tigers are currently 19th nationally and 2nd in the CAA.
It was a busy week for those Temple Owls. A Wednesday/Friday set of games yielded their second player on the top EGA list this week. Friday’s game from Quinn Nicolai (and the Temple offense overall) was validating. UMBC entered the game with the 18th ranked defense in the country. The Owls didn’t blow the doors off of things like they’d been doing in previous games, but the 29% efficiency was still good enough for a 3-goal margin.
Mastropietro and Nicolai took a combined 25 shots in this game, and it appears that the pair has cemented themselves as the two key offensive players (although Roth is not far behind). Of that trio though, Nicolai has the highest individual player efficiency mark (90 out of 100 on the Madden-style scale).
All the goals that Jacksonville didn’t score against UNC came out in their game against ECU last Saturday. I’d have to go into the depths of the database, but I can’t imagine there are many instances where a team played 2 back-to-back games where their offensive efficiency marks were 40 percentage points apart. Against UNC, the Dolphins scored 10 goals on 49 offensive possessions (20.4%). Against ECU, they scored 24 goals on 40 possessions (60%).
That 60% mark is the best Dolphin’s offensive output since I’ve been tracking their stats (going back 7 years). And while correlation does not equal causation, it’s notable that this was also the most involved that Kinsey has been all season. The 15 shots she took against ECU almost equaled the 16 shots she took in their previous 4 games. She’s tended to be a more proficient distributor (86/100 assist rate rating), but this game showed that when needed, she can put shots away too.
After winning the Big South Freshman of the Year award last year at Radford, Goeller transferred to Cincinnati and has immediately become the first option for the Bearcats’ offense. But you get the sense that this was the first game where she really put it all together.
And you can see it in the efficiency totals; her uaEGA for this game was the highest of the year because she limited turnovers (just 1), had a bunch of GBs (4) and scored a bunch without needing a lot of shots to get there. It’s one thing to have high EGA; but it’s another to generate those numbers in an efficient way. She’s starting to get there though. After 7 games, her player efficiency rating (measured on a 100 point scale) is 82. In her award-winning season last year, it was 63.
Siena just finished up their third game in 6 days, but it was McNeely’s performance in the first of that stretch that earned her a spot here. The trend for her 2022 season has been increased opportunity.
The rise of the Campbell offense is one of the great stories so far this season. After accounting for the defenses they’ve faced, this is currently a top-20 unit (#18).
And Bischoff has been a key part of that, along with Julianna Sanchez and Megan Matthews. Keep it up against defenses not ranked 111th and the world is really going to take notice.
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) and you’ll head straight to the detailed breakdown on their LacrosseReference PRO page. As opposed to last year, all players appearing in the weekly rundown are unlocked and the information on their page is available to all readers.
