Class of 2016
MARGIE ANDERSON • Top scorer and captain of UMass’
1982 NCAA title team • Two-time U.S. World Cup gold medalist (1986 and 1989) • Scored game-winning goal in 1989 World Cup final
KIM BASNER • Top college official for 21 years,
Dayton’s first game came against
William and Mary. The Indians were filled with experienced players from up north. They cradled, and yet they still played fast. Longwood lost 20-6.
“I remember thinking, ‘So that’s what our coach meant,’” Dayton said. “‘So that’s how you play the game.’” Dayton did eventually learn to cradle and she eventually became one of the best in her generation to play lacrosse. She led Team USA in scoring at the 1986 World Cup. In 1987 she won the Beth Allen Award as the national team’s most outstanding player.
Longwood gave Dayton plenty of time to learn lacrosse’s intricacies. Farmville was little more than the school, a McDonald’s and a pizza shop. There wasn’t much else to do but play sports.
“It was a bit like ‘Cheers,’” Dayton said.
“Everybody knew your name.” It also helped that Jane Miller, a future Hall of Famer herself who would go onto become one of Dayton’s best friends and mentors, arrived to coach Longwood’s lacrosse team midway through Dayton’s collegiate career. “She was a masterful coach,” Dayton said. “We learned so much under her.” Miller, who would later coach Dayton
on Team USA and coach alongside her at Virginia, and Josie Harper, who brought Dayton to Dartmouth as a field hockey
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coach, would become Dayton’s two greatest influences.
Dayton played on the U.S. team until her 30th birthday. She figured it was the right time to step away. The makeup of the team looked a lot like it does today — a lot of women from big schools like Maryland and Virginia. Dayton and Dee Cross, from Shippensburg, had an inside joke. They called themselves “the outliers.” Sometimes statisticians don’t know how to attribute the presence of an outlier. Sometimes it’s just an error in the measurement. Not so with Dayton. From her parents who always supported her, to the high school coach who advised her to get the scholarship guide, to the college coach who put a stick in her hand, to Miller and Harper, Dayton can pinpoint the reasons for her surprising path to lacrosse stardom. But could an outlier like Dayton even exist today?
“On one hand I sit there and go,
‘Wow, I wish I could have had more chances to play and get better, with fall ball and the tournaments all summer,’” Dayton said. “On the other hand, whew- wee, am I glad I played when I did. It’s hard to know if you can compete with these kids. I certainly would have tried hard. No one would have out-trained me.”
MICHELE LEFEVRE DOYLE • Coach, administrator and
ambassador of women’s game for more than 20 years
• Organized first girls’ lacrosse state tournament in Pennsylvania history • Active leader of the former USWLA
September/october 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 17
including three NCAA championship games
• Officiated 1993 World Cup final in Scotland
• NCAA coordinator of officials from 2006-2014
JOANNE CONNELLY • Three-time All-American defender
at Penn State (1994-96) • Three-time U.S. World Cup team member (1997, 2001 and 2005) • All-World Team defender in 2005
JULIE DAYTON • Two-time first-team All-American midfielder at
Longwood
• Played on U.S. Olympic exhibition team in 1984 • Top scorer for Team USA at 1986 World Cup
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