Senior Molly Flanagan has been named the Division III
Women's Lacrosse Preseason “Player of the Year” by US Lacrosse. For Union, it is the first time in the
31-year history of women's sports that a Dutchwoman has been named as “Player
of the Year.” For Flanagan, it is
another accomplishment to be added to an impressive, a very impressive, resume.
“I am very excited about it,” said the Simsbury, Connecticut, native, who finished
her junior season by being named to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse
Coaches' Association national All-American First Team. “My goal was to be the
Liberty League's Player of the Year (she finished behind senior attack woman
Gretchen Lasda of William Smith) after I was rookie of the league's year. At
last year's All-American banquet I was listening to them give the speech about
the player of the year, and was like, if I worked hard enough that could be me.
“It is a great honor to be recognized already (by US
Lacrosse) but now I am feeling some extra pressure to do better because people
will be more critical when they hear of my honors. I'd better not mess it up.”
Flanagan has quite the athletic career at Union. She enters the spring as the Dutchwomen's
second-leading all-time scorer with 163 goals, 54 assists and 217 points. Already the program leader in career goals,
Flanagan trails only Nina Mandel (Class of 2003) in career points (219) and is
third behind Mandel (84) Abby Harris ('00)-who has 62 assists-in career
helpers.
As a freshman, Flanagan set the Dutchwomen's single-season
record for goals (62) and points (76) before destroying those standards last
season by scoring 69 goals and 97 points.
To truly understand what make's her junior season so remarkable, you
have to look back to the end of her sophomore season when a knee injury cost
her the last four games of the season and threatened her athletic career. While the injury did keep her out of uniform
for the 2003 soccer season and ended her brief career as a member of the ice
hockey team (where she finished third in scoring with 14 goals, 16 assists and
30 points during the 2002-03 campaign), it didn't stop her from leading the
lacrosse squad to the championship game of the program's first-ever Eastern
College Athletic Conference Mid-Atlantic postseason tournament.
“Molly had a grade 3 Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear – which means she completely tore her ACL which is a major stabilizing ligament in the knee. Your ACL helps prevent your lower leg from moving forward,” explained Union athletic trainer Jill Crary, who supervised Flanagan's rehab program. “A grade 3 tear is as bad as it gets for ACL tears,” continued Crary. “It was no longer doing its job; it was no longer attached. The only way to repair her knee is through surgery particularly if she wanted to continue with athletics.
“Rehab for an ACL is very usually taking six months before one can return to activity,” Crary explained. ” Molly was injuried at the end April, had surgery in the middle of May and and was not cleared to run until November. She was very dedicated to rehab. She would come in at least once a day if not two or three times a day prior to surgery so that she could be in the best shape for surgery because the better shape you are in the better your knee can handle the surgery.
“Molly is a very athletic young lady who takes every thing as a challenge and she met this major set back head on,” Crary recalled. “She did not let her injury get the best of her. She set her goal and dove right in. Molly was a great pleasure to work with, she never complained and she always wanted to step things up. All ACL rehabs are intense and Molly's attitude was great.
“I am not surprised at all that Molly did so well,” said Crary. “She is a pure athlete and I never had any doubts about Molly.”
The Dutchwomen, who set a program record for wins in a
season with their overall mark of 15-5.
The Garnet finished second in the Liberty League with a record of 7-1
and missed advancing to the NCAA tournament by just one goal, losing to William
Smith, 9-8, in the championship game of the Liberty League tournament. The Dutchwomen's ECAC invitation marked the
sixth time in the last seven years that they have qualified for postseason
play, including NCAA appearances in 1999 and 2002.
So how does this year's team stack up?
“We are going to be so good,” exclaimed Flanagan. “We have to make seven cuts and I honestly
can't see one person who I would cut.
The team seems more competitive this year and I feel that this is going
to be the best team we have had in my four years.”
If Flanagan's prediction holds true, this year's opponents
are in real trouble. Since she put on a
Garnet uniform, the Dutchwomen have put together an overall record of 40-11, a
league standard of 20-4, have been to the NCAA tournament (2002), the ECAC
Tournament and won a New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association
championship (2003). Union also
captured the conference championship with a perfect 8-0 record in Flanagan's
freshman season of 2002.
The biggest wrinkle in this year's team comes at the top
where Lacey French, last year's assistant coach, will take over for Linda
Bevelander, who will miss the 2005 season while out on disability. Bevelander's seven previous seasons produced
an overall record of 80-36 and a league mark of 38-12. Her Dutchwomen competed in four NYSWCAA
championship tournaments (winning the program's first-ever title in 2000 before
repeating as champions in 2003), earned the team's first-ever NCAA berth (in
1999) and the Dutchwomen's first-ever NCAA win (13-6 over Amherst in 2002),
played in last year's ECAC event, and captured two Liberty League titles (in
1999 and 2002) while finishing second in both 1998 and last year.
“I think Lacey is going to do a great job,” Flanagan
stated. “We have Jamie (assistant coach
Jamie Seward) back and I love them both. They are two very athletic people who
have a great game sense and have a great attitude that they bring to practice
everyday.”
Looking back at her career, athletically and every other
way, Flanagan is glad she made Union her home the last four years.
“I love it here,” she said.
“I love the girls on the teams I have been on and I love my coaches and
my professors. I am looking forward to graduation, but I have loved it all.”
Some of her many lacrosse highlights include beating William
Smith during her freshman year to win the league championship; beating Hamilton
in two games last year; winning the program's first-ever NCAA game in her
freshman year; beating Colby in Florida last year; and the All-American
banquets.
But her athletic memories don't stop with just lacrosse, a
three-year standout for the nationally-ranked soccer team, Flanagan includes,
“beating William Smith more than they have beaten us,” and her first game of
2004 after missing all of 2003 because of the knee injury. As for her one season on the ice hockey
team, she says, “sweeping RIT one weekend when we were by far the underdogs was
tremendous.” Union, which had never
beaten the Tigers, won both games at home by the score of 3-2.
Also high in her Union memories are the times she has spent
with her twin sister, Liz. Union has
given the sisters the opportunity to play lacrosse throughout their college
careers and it was because of Liz, who was the ice team's Most Valuable Player
following both her freshman and sophomore seasons, that Molly played during her
sophomore year. The two were named the
2002 co-winners of the Terri Lynch-Jackie Havercamp Cuttita Memorial Award,
which has been given since 1980 to the “the freshman female student-athlete who has shown desire,
dedication, sportsmanship, and inspirational leadership on the field of
competition as well as in her daily life.” Because the award is given to a freshman, it is not about one-year
achievements but rather it is about continued expectations and future
successes. Molly and Liz were the first
co-winners in the history of the award. Molly was also presented with the
College's “Sophomore Athletic Prize.”
While Molly will join her classmates on the graduation
podium in June, her career at Union is not yet finished. Because of the knee injury that forced her
to miss the entire 2003 soccer season, Flanagan is eligible to wear the uniform
in that sport this fall.
“I plan on returning for my MBA and to play soccer another
year here,” she says. “After that, I
would like to get a job in Albany or Boston at an engineering firm.
With her track record of success, that shouldn't be much of
a problem.