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.
I know I know. It was Wofford, but a career high is a career high regardless. And this was certainly that. Hormes had her best game of the year, both in terms of raw EGA (11.38) and her efficiency (2.96 uaEGA).
This is one of the more prolific players that you don’t hear too much about.
Well that was a bit out of nowhere. Coming into this game, Paddy’s career best EGA mark was 3.68 in 31 career games. Against Youngstown, she put up a raw EGA of 10.72.
The coaching staff must have decided to give her a bigger role in the draw control game because a big part of her EGA was the 13 draw controls (also a career high). But it wasn’t just that; she also took a career high 9 shots (and connected on 55% of them), while adding 3 assists which is…you guessed it…a career high.
#3 – Siena Gore (Kennesaw State) – 9.62 goals added
Apr 2 vs Stetson Opp ELO: 1102
Hello old friend. Siena Gore has opened up a nearly 11 EGA lead over Charlotte North in the Statistical Tewaaraton race. Granted she’s played one more game, but her per-game average is still the highest in Division I.
It is worth saying though; the newfound heights she’s hitting is a function of her increased usage-rate, which is 18.5% this year after 16.3% last year. She’s playing only as efficiently as she did last year.
During the Dukes’ 5-game winning streak, Peterson has shot a whopping 63%. During their 3-4 start, she shot 48%. Now, let’s not confuse things, a 48% shooting percentage is still pretty good, but as JMU has turned around their fortunes, their shooting has been a big part of it.
At this point, Peterson is rated an 89 out of 100 for shooting percentage this season. Back to what we came to expect from her pre-COVID, when she was a…89.
It’s quite clearly a 2-team race in the Big East. Denver and their suffocating defense have the pole position though. We’ll get to see how that match-up turns out on April 9th and with luck, again in the Big East tournament. If UConn is going to win either of those games, this team is going to have to be more secure with the ball. On an opponent-adjusted basis, the Huskies are the 40th ranked team for ball security.
And as great at Sydney Watson has been at scoring goals and winning draws, her ball security rating is just a 17 out of 100. That’s a stat I’ll be watching going forward.
One thing to watch is the Cardinal offensive saved shot rate. In the early part of the season it was sky-high against all those tough opponents. The early part of conference play saw it go down quite a bit, but it’s starting to creep back up again. This is one of the most underrated stats in my opinion. Shooting percentage doesn’t tell you much if you don’t know whether the misses are saved or backed-up.
Wofford is leading the league in top-EGA-games against. If that we a tracked stat.
Farber is the latest to make her mark against the Terriers with about as clean a stat-line as you’ll see. 6 goals on 10 shots. 2 assists and a ground-ball. Zero turnovers. This was the 2nd most efficient game of her 38-game career.
Collignon is the 7th most efficient freshman in all of Division I Women’s lacrosse this year. Her big game against Army is just the latest example. Here is the full list:
These are the 5 players with the highest individual player efficiency who also have a usage-rate over 8% (meaning they are among the top options for their team):
Quite a week for Meagan Beal who went into the phone booth and came out wearing her draw control super-hero outfit. In her last two games, she has had 27 draw controls and a total of nearly 16 expected-goals-added thanks to all the possessions she’s won for the Paladins.
The crazy thing is that in her previous 26 career games, she had a grand total of 20 draw controls.
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