Geri Lynn Utter
The men’s lacrosse team is shredding competitors on its 11 game winning streak, since losing the first two games of the season. With stellar performance and outstanding leadership, the team is currently 11-2 and has earned the no. 1 seed in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference.
Relentlessly attacking opponents, Tom Lemieux, senior captain of the men’s lacrosse team, is used to being on top. Leaving challengers behind on the field and on the scoreboard, Lemieux leads his teammates with intensity and emotion, paving the way for success.
This season, Lemieux became Cabrini’s all-time leading scorer with 208 career points. Points in lacrosse, like hockey, are a tallied total of goals and assists. Entering the season, Lemieux needed 37 points to break the record previously held by 1997 graduate Joey Collins. Against Shenandoah on March 29, Lemieux had five goals and one assist, six points, to become the all-time scoring leader in a 22-7 victory for the Cavaliers.
“It happened in Virginia and no one told me anything and then they announced it before the Neumann game at home and gave me a ball and took pictures. It was a great honor,” Lemieux said.
Despite being the all-time scoring leader and three-time PAC Player of the Week this season, Lemieux credits his teammates for his success
“Breaking the record is something that comes from the players around me. People who get points get recognition but all the players make it happen. It’s a credit to all the players around me over the past four years,” Lemieux said. “But I’ve been working hard all four years. Its tough to be an athelete and deal with the whole school thing. My teammates have helped me out.”
Success with lacrosse is not new territory for Lemieux. As a senior at Comsewogue High School in Long Island, NY, Lemiuex led the team to a state championship. Playing attack as a captain, Lemiuex was voted onto the All County team in Suffolk County, NY, which has long been a hot spot for lacrosse, according to Lemiuex.
“We won states my senior year. After that, I heard from Carbini and I liked it,” he said.
Sophomore goalie Antonio Masone played high school lacrosse with Lemiuex and feels fortunate to be an outlet for Lemieux’s scoring rampage.
“Tommy is an emotional role model,” Masone said. “He’s a great person on and off the field and his teammates look up to him. I’ve been playing lacrosse with him for five years between high school and college and he’s been someone to look up to.”
When Lemieux’s playing days for Cabrini are over, he will not only be able to say that he helped the team be successful for four years but that he was a foundational player in Cabrini lacrosse history as well.
As Lemieux recalls, “We only had like 19 players my freshman year and we field 11 so it was tough. The program has come a long way though and it feels great to be part of it.”
Continuing his pattern of success, Lemieux is using his experience and leadership to improve the program for the future. “I grew up with lacrosse at home. I’ve always been on a winning program and it feels good to know that we’re good now too. It’s just good to be part of it all. We have a great team now,” he said.
Since Lemieux first stepped his quick feet onto Cabrini’s field, the team has grown considerably. With 44 on the roster, Cabrini men’s lacrosse is proving itself as perennial contenders for the PAC title and a serious threat in the NCAA tournament.
