USF Lacroose: A Bright Future Ahead

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There are so many exciting things happening for USF Athletics. The football team broke ground on their new on-campus stadium and the baseball and softball teams have big recruiting classes that can help both teams have successful 2025 seasons. However, a major announcement is for the USF Lacrosse team. The university has a women’s team, and they will be playing their first game which is not an exhibition game. That will happen on Friday, February 7th against Kennesaw State. This is great for head coach Mindy McCord and her players. Many who say women cannot play sports well should attend a lacrosse game and see if that is true. Lacrosse is an exciting sport to watch. Coach McCord announced the program’s third signing class.

The future of USF’s lacrosse program is coming from seven different states. They have two players each from Colorado and Georgia. Single players also come from Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Virginia. This class will include one goalie, two attackers, three midfielders, one attacker/midfielder, and two defenders. All the players will be ready for the AAC competition because they come from talent-rich competitive high school programs. Coach McCord is very excited and said this class will be transformative for years. The 2025 class is the first in the program’s history that went through a complete recruiting cycle knowing what the program is all about. The other sports programs at USF all have goals and a good culture. This recruiting class will arrive in the fall of 2025 and will be part of the program’s second competitive season in 2026.

The first signee of this class is Kadyn Brandt. She comes from Flemington, New Jersey. Brandt attended Hunterdon Central Regional High School and is a midfielder. While at Hunterdon, she won County Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024. She chose USF for not only the coaches and family environment but also the ability to start a legacy and make history. Avery Graham is also a midfielder from Olney, Maryland from Sherwood High School, and she won Montgomery County Player of the Year in 2024. Along with playing lacrosse she also plays varsity flag football, and varsity basketball, and runs cross country. Graham chose USF because she wants to build a legacy for the program.

Madisyn Jokerst is a midfielder/attacker. She comes to USF from Parker, Colorado out of Regis Jesuit High School. Jokerst was named team captain in her junior year (2024). She was selected in the 2022 and 2024 National Team Development Program Combine for Team USA. The reason she was chosen was she scored 146 goals, and 38 assists, and played in 49 career prep games. The goalie in the signing class is Alexa Lang. This is a very important position in lacrosse. The goalie wears the same gear as the hockey goalie’s wear. Lang is from Aurora, Colorado. She was a three-year goalie at Colorado Academy before transferring to The John Carroll School for her senior year. At the Colorado Academy, she had a 51-0 record, 57.8% save percentage, and only allowed 4.6 goals per game. She chose USF for the NIL deals and campus.

The next two players are both defensemen. The first is Lucy Livingston from Sayville, New York. She went to Sayville High School where she earned All-Division in 2023 and was named All-Rookie in 2023. Livingston chose USF for the team culture and to learn from these coaches. The other defenseman is Hayden Miller. Miller is from Milton, Georgia. where she attended Milton High School where she was named All-America South Team from 2022-24. Miller chose USF because she feels the coaches treat her and her teammates like family and not just players. She also likes that Tampa is a perfect spot to grow on and off the field.

The next two players are attackers. Lyla Sharpe is the first one who comes from Granger, Indiana. She went to Penn High School where she was named 2022 New Player of the Year and All-State in 2023. Sharpe decided to come to USF because of the competitive and uplifting environment. The next player is Aria Webster from Ashburn, Virginia. She attended high school at Independence High School where she was All-District from 2022-24, and First-Team All-Region from 2022-24. She came to USF because she has been in love with the state of Florida since she was young and always dreamed of living in the state. The last in the class is Alex Whitecliffe who is a midfielder from Ball Ground, Georgia. She attended Cherokee High School. Whitecliffe chose USF to be part of developing and paving the new team. This will be exciting to watch all these young ladies. They are all here to make USF lacrosse great!

How do you think these players will help USF Lacrosse? Leave a comment below.

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