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.
Top Single Game Scores of the week
#1 – Siena Gore (Kennesaw State) – 11.29 goals added
Mar 12 vs Butler Opp ELO: 1057
If there were a most valuable player award in lacrosse, it would be hard to find anyone who is more valuable to their team than Siena Gore. And despite the loss to Butler, that was in full effect on Saturday. She had an absurd 24.8% play share, winning 11 draws and adding 2 ground balls to her 9 goals on 14 shots. 7 of the 9 goals were unassisted.
The issue is that she took over half of their shots and as a team, they committed 19 turnovers. When someone is far and away the most valuable player on your team, that’s typically not the best thing for a well-rounded offense.
She was back at it again against Yale. 7 goals plus a season-high 14 draw controls. And just one turnover.
The interesting thing for the BC offense is that North’s play share is still just 12.4% for the season, which is the lowest mark in her three years with the team. Her teammates are doing more and she’s having to shoulder less of the burden. The net effect is that she’s been more efficient and the offense has been better than last year.
Big game against UNC this weekend to settle who is #1, at least temporarily.
#3 – Deanna Balsama (San Diego State) – 9.07 goals added
Mar 12 vs Princeton Opp ELO: 2119
45 goals! You don’t often see a team score 18 and lose as decisively as SDSU did against Princeton. This is now back-to-back weeks that Balsama has gone off with her 2nd consecutive 8-goal game, this time on just 10 shots.
When I look at her 2022, ball security is the thing that stands out.
She’s gone from a 17 (out of 100) on the ball security skill last year to a 52 this year. Add in much improved shooting and this is one of the most efficient players in the country through 6 games.
She has the 4th highest EGA/game average this year. Her player efficiency rating (97 out of 100) puts her near the top of Division 1. And the Maryland offense had reaped the rewards. They are the 7th rated offensive unit this year, after finishing last year ranked 43rd.
With Rutgers ascendant and Northwestern still in the pole-position, the Big Ten race is going to be something else.
UConn has reached [No]20 in the most recent LaxElo ratings. With an 1858 rating, this appears to be the peak Elo rating that program has ever achieved.
The win over Cornell was another chance for Sydney Watson to shine, adding 6 more points to her season-total. But more important are the strides that the offense has made as a whole. They are back to where they finished 2020, with the 9th rated opponent-adjusted offensive unit.
And Watson wasn’t the only Husky to make the list this week. LaPrise makes her first even appearance on the weekly top-EGA list with a career-high 9 point effort. And it was a very efficient performance; those 7 goals came on just 9 shots. She did have 2 turnovers, and that’s been the issue for her this year. She’s averaging 2.43 TOs / game. That puts her in the 8th percentile nationally for ball security.
With the strides she’s made this year with respect to shooting accuracy, you’d love to see her take better care of the ball and become a true partner-in-crime with Watson.
Always fun to see freshmen show up on this list. So far in 2022, she’s behind just Sophie Student for the team lead in play share. And here’s a fun stat for you. Vergano has taken 51 shots and 49 of them have been on goal. Not 49%. 49. That’s a 96% SOG rate.
And on Tuesday against Furman, it was more of the same. 6 goals on 10 shots. Keep an eye on Vergano in the coming years.
Wofford’s defense is ranked 113th. Still 25 goals against anybody is impressive. And Liquori was the most productive of the bunch for UML. 4 goals on 7 shots plus 2 assists was a full stat sheet.
The question for the team is how do you replicate that against better defenses. Quinnipiac made her more one-dimensional and she ended up committing 5 turnovers in that loss. Adaptability is as important as skills/production.
So far in 2022, O’Donnell’s player efficiency (usage-adjusted-EGA) has seen one of the largest jumps of any qualified player in Division I Women’s lacrosse. She ended 2021 with a 32 (out of 100) efficiency rating. This year? 77.
There are 2 metrics that go into the model that produces this list: total EGA and usage-adjusted-EGA. Most of the time, a player will have scored a ton and maybe had some turnovers, but not enough to keep them off the list. In almost every instance, the EGA value is higher than the uaEGA. Despite incorporating efficiency into the model this year, this list is still normally about overall production.
Kelsey Huff broke the mold. Her uaEGA rating for this game was 5.46. That is the 19th highest uaEGA of any player, men’s or women’s this year in a game with at least 4 points scored.
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