Stony Brook players storm the field to celebrate their NCAA tournament win over Boston College.
And certainly no laughing matter.
Murphy’s dad convinced her to give Spallina, who was fresh off three titles in three years at Division II Adelphi, a chance. It was a risk. The Seawolves had gone 4-11 during the previous season. The day Murphy committed, she watched Stony Brook get crushed by Syracuse during Spallina’s first season of fall ball.
“It was just on a whim that I trusted him,” she said. “I took a chance. He had all these promises, but nothing was there yet.”
The Seawolves have gone
USlaxmagazine.com
83-18 since. They finished last season as the No. 8 team in the country. Spallina is now the winningest coach in program history. Murphy is already the program’s all- time leading scorer. Murphy is from Shirley, way out east down Sunrise Highway, on the South Shore. She played at William Floyd High School. It’s a football town. The closest thing Long Island has to Friday Night Lights. Her older brother Steve played lacrosse at Notre Dame and for the Lizards, but out there he’s still known as a Long Island championship winning quarterback.
They wondered why
Courtney — who also played basketball, soccer, field hockey, and cross country — even played lacrosse.
The football coach tried to recruit her to be his kicker. Murphy turned him down. Too embarrassing. Her dad is still mad at her about it. Coming from a town where lacrosse is an afterthought to even an up-and-coming Division I program like Stony Brook was an awakening. Everyone could pass and catch. She and Spallina often butted heads. He was constantly yelling. One practice he told her to start running and forgot about her until it was over. They joke about it now. “I was never really pushed until I got here,” she admitted. Her brother told her to hang in there. Everyone gets it like that. Besides, behind the coach’s bravado and bluster was someone the Seawolves
trusted and wanted to play for.
“He’s honestly one of the best guys I’ve met,” Murphy said. “He just wants you to be the best you can be. Off the field, he always has your back. I can go to him for anything. He will make you into whatever you want to be.”
In Murphy’s case, that was the first 100-goal scorer in Division I history. She hit the mark in her final game of the season, a one- goal loss to Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. “I would have rather beaten Syracuse than break the record,” she said. “If I need 100 assists to get a championship this year, I’ll do it. I’m not really an assister, so that might be a stretch.” Assisting is more
February 2017 US LACROSSE MAGAZINE 43
©MATT RISLEY
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