For USF lacrosse, building a top-notch roster continues but the NCAA snub still hurts

It has been a month since USF's lacrosse coaching staff and players sat stunned as the NCAA tournament field was announced and they were not included.

Time marches on, of course, and head coach Mindy McCord has stayed focused on building a team for next season that won't depend on the whims of a tournament selection committee.

She added Villanova midfielder Bella Piselli, who finished this season with 27 points on 20 goals and seven assists.

Defender Jillian McNaughton comes to USF from John's Hopkins, where she was a key piece of a unit that competes in the Big Ten. The Blue Jays finished second, one game behind eventual national champion Northwestern.

Samantha Swanovich came home from Rutgers (another Big Ten team) to join the Bulls. She graduated from Newsome High School near Tampa and was a USA Lacrosse High School All-American. At Rutgers, she finished her redshirt freshman season with 16 goals and was headed for another strong season as a sophomore before missing the final 10 games with an injury.

Attacker Brooke Molchanoff comes in from Mount St. Mary's, where she was a dynamo. She was the MAAC Offensive Player of the Year and a first team all-conference selection . She had 60 goals last season and 22 assists to set program record for points in a single season with 82.

So, yeah, McCord has been busy, but that doesn't mean the NCAA snub didn't leave a mark. She made time to speak about that (and other topics) with Green, Gold and Bold this week. She took us back to the moment where she and the team realized what had happened.

"I''ve never been a part of that situation. My immediate reaction was, the room is silent, and I need to get up and say something," she said. "And I guess I just hadn't prepared for that moment, because you're not being pessimistic that you're not getting in, right? I'd say that it happened so quickly that it's like, okay, well, I'll send you an email about turning your equipment tomorrow.

"I tried to get up there and encourage the team as best as I could, but also they should feel how it feels. You don't want to be in the situation again, so you got to get the job done. Don't leave it up to people on the human nature. But I also said it shouldn't take away from the incredible season that they had."

I asked her what she looks for in a player besides athleticism.

"You're looking for speed of body, which is athleticism, your speed of mind, your IQ, your speed of hand, your stick work, and your fundamentals. We look at how competitive a player is and their desire to win national championships. Are you that competitive or are you just happy to be on a team?" she said.

"As a player, when you're around a team, do you elevate and bring people up? We want people that understand their roles, do their job well, but are competitiv. Are they going to set the standards to do the work necessary to create wins? And we're going to do that within a culture that values people."

Even with that bitter disappointment of missing the NCAA tournament, the first two seasons of USF lacrosse have been, by any measure, wildly successful. Two appearances in the American Conference tournament championship game. An undefeated regular season in the conference this year.

The team has been in the top 10 nationally in attendance both seasons. And one of their biggest fans is a familiar name in Tampa Bay -- Jon Gruden.

The next step for this team is to nail some top 25 wins. Even though the Bulls challenged four teams that were ranked at the time -- three of which were in the top 7 -- they lost all those games. Even though they were No. 18 in the NCAA's RPI rankings, the committee obviously used those losses against them -- even though no team with that ranking was ever left out of the field.

And it's time for the NCAA to consider expanding the field beyond the current 29 teams.

The last time the field was expanded was in 2016. Lacrosse has experienced significant growth since then. There are now 133 teams playing Division I women's lacrosse.

"We've had Division II conferences move up to Division I. If you look at the growth of the sport since they last expanded the tournament, we should be at least at 32 teams. And so I'd like to advocate for that. I'd like to think we get in if that's the case," she said.

The Bulls have a lot of top talent returning next season, and with the additions through the portal USF should be in the mix for another regular season championship and -- this time -- a berth in the NCAA tournament.

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