NCAA DivisioN i WoMeN • PreseAsoN PlAyer of the yeAr COLLEGE PREVIEW 2013
TAYLOR THORNTON NORTHWESTERN T Michelle Tumolo
aylor Thornton can do it all. The Northwestern senior plays defense better than almost anyone else. (She was the IWLCA Defender of the Year in 2011.) She is fast and strong between the lines — the definition of a two-way midfielder.
“She has the skills, speed, intensity and fitness,” Navy coach
Cindy Timchal said. “She is the whole package, and is the finest defender in the game.” Thornton can shoot, too. She more than doubled her scoring with 33 goals in 2012. And she has an apparently unlimited capacity to learn and to improve. “Any time we give her something, she just wraps her arms around it and says, ‘Great, no problem,’” Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. Now a senior, Thornton will take a few more steps on her journey from defense to offense. The graduation of Shannon Smith and the transfer of Casey Bocklet to Virginia left Northwestern’s attack looking its thinnest in years. Thornton, Gabriella Flibotte and Alyssa Leonard found their stride as a draw unit in the NCAA tournament. If they can bring the same dynamism over the restraining line on offense, it will go a long way toward keeping Northwestern in contention against high-scoring opponents like Syracuse and Florida. “You can’t even match up with one or two players on her. You actually need a whole system to stop her on attack,” said Ohio State coach Alexis Venechanos, whose Buckeyes’ held Thornton to just one goal in a 13-12 overtime loss. Even against a scheme designed specifically to thwart her, Thornton found ways to contribute against Ohio State, including a career-high nine draw controls. Venechanos compared Thornton to her former
Katie Schwarzmann 35% Brittany Dashiell Marlee Paton Taylor Thornton
38% 12%
9% 6%
FAN VOTE A Publication of US Lacrosse February 2013 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 59
Maryland teammate Jen Adams. “Jen was able to dominate one end of the field. But Taylor’s X-factor is on the draw, and playing close ‘D’ on the team’s leading scorer. And now she’s drawing the other team’s best defender, too,” Venechanos said. “Usually it’s [just] one or two of those three things in a great player.” Thornton, a vivacious jokester off the field, is entertainingly cagey about what she’ll do on the field to contribute to the Wildcats’ three-peat attempt. “High attack? Goalie? Referee? Who knows? I can’t put a title on it, of what I’m going to be, or what I’m going to do,” she said. Some things are as sure as the sun rising in the East, though. “I know that I’m working hard,” Thornton said, “and good things are to come.”
— Clare Lochary
PreseAsoN PlAyers of the yeAr Year
lACrosse MAgAziNe Player
Team
2013 Taylor Thornton 2012 Shannon Smith
Northwestern Northwestern
2011 Karri Ellen Johnson Maryland 2010 Caitlyn McFadden Maryland 2009 Hannah Nielsen 2008 Caroline Cryer 2007 Kristen Kjellman 2006 Katie Chrest 2005 Amy Appelt 2004 Theresa Sherry 2003 Lauren Aumiller 2002 Kate Kaiser 2001 Jen Adams 2000 Alex Kahoe 1999 Alex Kahoe
Virginia
Princeton Virginia Duke
Maryland Maryland Maryland
1998 Sascha Newmarch Maryland 1997 Sarah Forbes 1996 Kelly Amonte
Maryland Maryland
Northwestern Duke
Northwestern Duke
©BILL DANIELEWSKI (TT); ©MARYLAND (KA)
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