May 9, 2024 | By Rachel Lenzi | buffalonews.com
Lois Garlow made a dynamic declaration when she joined the Niagara women’s lacrosse team as a transfer during the 2019-20 school year.
She aimed to set school records in scoring. She planned to help the Purple Eagles become a winning program. She wanted Niagara to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
That was more than four years ago. The 2019 Mount St. Mary Academy graduate smiles when she recalls it all.
“I was a cocky little 18-year-old,” the fifth-year senior attack admitted.
The thing is, Garlow helped the Purple Eagles bring all what she vowed to do into existence. Niagara (16-3) won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday and will face Stony Brook (17-2) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 2 p.m. Friday at Syracuse. The winner of that game will face Syracuse at 2 p.m. Sunday in a second-round game.
Garlow is Niagara’s all-time leading scorer. She came in with a class that set a standard for the program – a program that, when Wendy Stone took over as head coach in 2012, was considered an easy win for many opponents.
Garlow saw how this year’s seniors and fifth-year seniors grew into their roles as team leaders in 2023 and made Niagara into a contender.
“We brought in that winning mentality,” Garlow said. “We did not want to lose. We had an uncommon occurrence in our class. We had Rachel (Crane), myself and Lexi (Braniecki) starting as freshmen and sophomores. And then of course, when (Andra Savage) came in (from Towson), she was a huge transfer for us, and I think everybody just grew together, and everybody had that winning mentality.”
A detour to Niagara
Garlow began playing lacrosse when she was 3 years old and immediately had a passion to share with her family and her community. She has represented the Haudenosaunee Nation in the women’s lacrosse world championships, in international Sixes competition – a variation of lacrosse with six players on a side, as opposed to 11 – and in box lacrosse, an indoor variation with five players and a goalie on a side.
Garlow scored 125 goals in her senior season at Mount St. Mary, and former Thunder coach Paige Printup still is in awe of the number, five years later. Garlow wasn’t just about scoring goals, either.
“Normally, when you see a number like that, you think, ‘oh my goodness, she’s a ball hog,’ or ‘we’re only good because she’s scoring,’ ” Printup said. “She had 77 assists, as well. Not only was she our top scorer but our leader in assists. She was always looking for her teammates.”
Garlow’s teammates, Printup said, benefited from her awareness on the field. Emma Telesco was Mount St. Mary’s second-leading scorer in 2019, with 40 goals.
“We all knew she could take the ball to the net,” Printup said of Garlow. “We went to states that year, her senior year, and everyone knew who was going to have the ball, so they’d double her and triple her. She had to have knowledge of the game that sense of, ‘I need my teammates to pass to, so they can go to the net, too.’ ”
Garlow committed to Coastal Carolina when she was 14 years old, a decision that at the time seemed to secure her future. In her first semester of college, though, an injury to her left foot and subsequent surgery derailed her plans to immediately play for the Chanticleers. A confessed homebody, she wanted to return to Western New York.
Niagara did not initially recruit Garlow, but the regional lacrosse grapevine rustled quickly as Garlow looked for an opportunity.
She got in touch with Stone, Niagara’s coach and a 2001 Nichols graduate, who said the program “jumped” at having Garlow.
“We don’t do that very often, so we knew it was going to be a good fit for us,” Stone said. “We knew it was going to be special, bringing her into the program with her experience, both at the international level and what she’s been able to do, prior to getting here.”
Goals upon goals
Garlow didn’t immediately make a splash upon returning to Western New York. She played in only two games before the Covid-19 pandemic shelved her first season at Niagara in the spring of 2020.
A year later, she scored 22 goals and added 10 assists in 13 games to help Niagara to its first winning season (8-5) since since going 10-6 in 2003. In 2022, she led the Purple Eagles with 49 goals and 19 assists, the first of three seasons in which she has scored at least 40 goals.
Garlow has scored 95 goals in 38 games over the last two seasons, including 52 this season with a career-best 30 assists.
She has seen herself mature both in her lacrosse intelligence and in her confidence over five seasons. Coming in as a freshman transfer in 2020 wasn’t an easy transition. She knew, though, the sport was a vehicle to her own growth.
“Lacrosse helps everyone who plays,” Garlow said. “It helps you, as a person, to become more caring, more understanding to my team, as an individual. Lacrosse has really shaped me, to be who I am today. Growing up and being able to show the younger girls what you can accomplish is my biggest thing.”
What’s ahead
Garlow became Niagara’s all-time leading scorer Sunday, scoring her 237th and 238th points on a pair of goals in an 11-10 win over Fairfield. By winning the MAAC Championship, the Purple Eagles earned an automatic berth in the 29-team NCAA Tournament.
Niagara’s senior class includes Garlow, Savage, who was the MAAC’s leading scorer with 73 goals this season; Crane (48 goals, 30 ground balls) and Braniecki (57 goals). Savage is a native of Palmyra, east of Rochester. Her goals total also ranks tied for third in the nation. They are part of a group that has set a foundation of a winning culture for the program. They have also set a high bar for the future of the program, and for future players at Niagara.
“The younger players have seen what it’s taken and they see what having the pressure to score goals regularly, what that feels like and what that looks like,” Stone said. “They don’t necessarily have to experience it themselves, but they are learning from others.
“Leaving a legacy was their thing this year, and they’ve done that. Come Friday, we are setting our sights on new things. Winning the championship was huge. Alumni have helped get us here, and this group has helped us take that next step, which is winning an NCAA Tournament game. That starts on Friday, with showing up ready to play.”
Garlow is helping Niagara move to a national stage.
“It is so cool to think about Niagara going to Syracuse this weekend to play in the NCAA Tournament,” said Printup, Garlow’s coach at Mount St. Mary. “You hear about schools like Boston College, Northwestern and Maryland in women’s lacrosse, and now Niagara is going to be right there.”
Garlow’s college lacrosse career is down to a matter of games, maybe even minutes, and she has checked off every task she recited to Stone more than four years ago. She’s also setting new goals. Garlow wants to coach lacrosse and is completing her master’s degree in business administration this summer.
“Lacrosse is my everything,” Garlow said. “I love it so much. After college, that’s what I want to continue to do. I want to continue to coach and continue to show not just Haudenosaunee women but Indigenous women and Indigenous people everywhere that it’s possible and it’s something that I won’t take for granted, for sure.”
