In the seventh grade, Lauren LaPointe was cut from her local club team. She never thought she would be recruited by her dream program in high school.
But on a roster surrounded by All-Americans and Tewaaraton Award nominees, the junior attacker has turned into one of No. 3 Maryland women’s lacrosse’s top players.
“I never really thought I would be chosen to go to Maryland … I had a lot of fun visiting other places, but they never felt just right,” LaPointe said.
LaPointe headlines one of the nation’s
best attacking units, leading the Terps with 32 goals and 17 assists. She has consistently been Maryland’s primary shooting option, unloading 75 shots so far this season — 24 more than any other Terp.
Her breakout isn’t just about production. It’s the result of years spent building confidence after early setbacks.
Growing up in Glenelg, Maryland, as the daughter of former Maryland men’s lacrosse player Maury LaPointe, Lauren first picked up a stick at 7 years old. She got a taste of competitive lacrosse playing for a rec team in elementary school coached by her mother, Jennifer.
As LaPointe’s talents began to blossom, it became clear that she was built to be an attacker. Her high school and personal coach, Alex Pagnotta, observed her unique talents very early on.
“Her shot and her ability to cut and find and get into open space really lends her skill set to being an attacker,” Pagnotta said. “She’s also very good at finding an open player, so she’s almost perfect… you can’t deny her ability to be an attacker.”
But LaPointe’s talents went unrecognized by several of her coaches. Getting cut from her middle school club team pulled LaPointe away from both her friends and the game of lacrosse itself.
“Obviously, there’s always frustration with not getting the outcome that you want, but I think it’s one of the biggest blessings that’s come to me,” LaPointe said.
LaPointe found her footing with a different club team, where her coaches trusted her to take on more of a leadership role. She continued to play lacrosse into high school, making the Glenelg High School varsity team in her freshman year.
Jennifer first observed her daughter’s extraordinary ability to bounce back. LaPointe shares a special bond with her mother, whom she calls after almost every practice.
“Rather than becoming discouraged, she pretty much used that experience as motivation and growth,” Jennifer LaPointe said. “She just took off from there. She wanted to prove everybody wrong.”
Her on-field performance earned her attention from Maryland head coach Cathy Reese — who was on a poster in LaPointe’s childhood bedroom.
“With Cathy, it was like, ‘Hey, we want you, we believe in you, and that decision is yours to make.’ So it made the decision a lot easier,” LaPointe said.
When LaPointe first stepped on campus, her childhood dream became a reality. The players she had watched throughout high school were no longer faces on a screen — they were her new family.
“Everyone wants to compete, but as well as they want to have fun,” LaPointe said. “Competing all day during practice and the last whistle blows, and everyone’s best friends. You go hang out and go to dinner and whatnot. I really like the culture that we have here.”
But similar to most young Terps, LaPointe had to wait her turn. In her first two years, she made appearances in 32 games, scoring 35 goals and 13 assists, taking on additional responsibility after fellow attacker Maisy Clevenger went down with an ACL injury the latter half of the 2025 season.
Coming into 2026, the final starting lineup was anything but certain. With Clevenger returning from injury and Jordyn Lipkin coming off her first season as captain, attack slots seemed to be few and far between. Additionally, Reese secured graduate student attackers Kristen Shanahan and Keeley Block in the transfer portal to fill the empty slots.
Despite that, LaPointe impressed enough during offseason training to start against then-No. 13 Syracuse in the 2026 season opener. She went supersonic, scoring a career-high five goals to lead Maryland to victory.
“It was surprising to some, but not to me,” Pagnotta said. “Given the opportunity and given the confidence… she’s going to rise to the occasion, because she’s mentally sound, and that’s what a lot of players miss.”
Her breakout season has only grown from there, as the junior’s 3.2 goals per game mark is the fourth-best in the Big Ten. LaPointe attributes her massive growth in production to improvements on the mental side of the game.
But it’s something Reese has seen coming.
“I don’t think she realizes how good she is, and I don’t think she realized that in the recruiting process either,” Reese said. “Just from the experience that as she gets more confident, I think she starts to shine brighter.”
Sitting at a perfect 10-0, the Terps are poised to make a deep NCAA Tournament run after coming up short in the past several years. And with her past trials and tribulations shaping the player that she is today, LaPointe is eager to deliver as the hometown hero.
“The team as a whole is really hungry this season, and we’re giving everyone our best game, and we’re getting better each game,” LaPointe said. “So we’re improving those little things that we need to and letting everyone know that Maryland’s coming for them.”
