The Vault: Laurie Tortorelli, 'Sisters' (June 2002)

USA LACROSSE MAGAZINE, FORMERLY LACROSSE MAGAZINE, IS THE LONGEST-RUNNING AND MOST WIDELY READ LACROSSE PUBLICATION IN THE WORLD. THE MAGAZINE DATES BACK TO 1978.

“THE VAULT”  REVISITS PAST COVER SUBJECTS TO SEE WHERE THEY ARE NOW AND WHAT THAT MOMENT IN TIME MEANT TO THEM. 

For athletes celebrating Senior Day, it’s not unusual to have your full family in attendance to help celebrate the end of a high school or college career. In some cases, siblings may even be teammates, sharing the moment together side-by-side as players.

What is unusual, however, is having your sister playing on the opposing team. Schedules rarely line up that conveniently for Senior Day observances.

On May 4, 2002, Laurie Tortorelli, a four-year starter, was playing her final collegiate game as the goalie for Delaware. The Blue Hens were hosting Penn State at Rullo Stadium, and starting in goal for the visiting team that afternoon was Laurie’s younger sister, Elizabeth.

The Tortorelli matchup, pitting senior Laurie against freshman Elizabeth, was featured the following month on the cover of then-Lacrosse Magazine (“Sisters: The Tortorellis Carry on Lacrosse’s Family Tradition”).

“That was one of the best and hardest days of my career,” Laurie Tortorelli DeLuca said. “It was the last game of my career, and bittersweet, playing against my sister.”

Usually calm and composed before games, DeLuca recalls having many unfamiliar emotions that afternoon.

“As an athlete, I never really got nervous before games, but that day was different,” she said. “It was all very surreal and somewhat unbelievable to have her there as an opponent for my last day as a college athlete. It was the only time I remember being nervous on the field.”

The unusual scenario was not lost on her younger sister either.

“Who would have thought, in a million years, that we’d be on the same field for her final game,” Elizabeth Tortorelli Byers said. “I definitely had mixed emotions too. Of course, I wanted my team to win, but I was hesitant to celebrate with my teammates after each goal because we were scoring against my sister.”

Despite losing 13-9 to Penn State that day, Laurie Tortorelli (she wasn’t DeLuca yet) remains one of the most outstanding players in Blue Hen women’s lacrosse history. The 2002 graduate was a three-time all-region selection as a goalie, an IWLCA All-American and a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American. She was also the conference rookie of the year in 1999.

Now, nearly 20 years after she concluded her career, DeLuca still ranks second all-time in program history in saves (754), third in minutes played (3,767), fifth in goals against average (9.43) and fifth in save percentage (.560). She was a part of 37 wins, two NCAA tournaments and one America East championship.

“I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to play at Delaware,” DeLuca said. “As you get older, you reflect on how certain people helped you get to where you were supposed to be. Denise [Wescott] was one of the main reasons I ended up at Delaware.”
 

While growing up in Haverford, Pa., and attending lacrosse summer camps, DeLuca developed a relationship with Wescott, UD’s head coach from 1994-2004. When the time arrived, choosing to attend Delaware was an easy choice.

Three years later, when younger sister Elizabeth made her college decision, she chose to forge her own collegiate path at Penn State, where she also enjoyed an All-American goalie career. Ironically, Elizabeth was not the only familiar face on the opposing team for DeLuca’s final game.

“I had played with a lot of the Penn State players throughout my high school years,” Laurie said. “Some of my good friends were on that team.”

Similarly, having attended many of Laurie’s collegiate games in prior seasons, Elizabeth had developed friendships with Wescott and many of the Blue Hen players. So much so that the game on May 4 had the feel of an inter-squad scrimmage.

“It seemed like everyone on both teams was somehow connected,” Tortorelli Byers said. “So many of us were from the Central League in Pennsylvania. We all sort of knew each other.”

Following graduation, DeLuca accepted a position as assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Cornell, a position she held until stepping down in 2008 for the birth of her first child, Ellie.

It was during her tenure at Cornell that she also met and married her husband, Ben DeLuca, serving at the time as the assistant men’s lacrosse coach at Cornell. He is now in his fourth year as the Delaware head coach.

Being back in Newark with her husband and two children is a comfortable fit for the former Blue Hen women’s lacrosse standout.

“There’s a real family atmosphere here, and it’s so rewarding for me to be back on campus and see all the upgrades that have happened,” she said. “We feel very fortunate.”

DeLuca said that her biggest challenge these days, as a coach’s wife, is learning how to deal with the nervous energy that is much more common now than it was during her playing career.

“As a wife, I have no control over the game, so all I do is worry and stress out,” she said. “Sometimes, I wish I didn’t know as much about the game as I do. That might make it easier to watch.”

DeLuca also remains active as a youth and high school coach, serving as the head coach at the Sanford School in Hockessin, Del., and as a club coach with NXT Lacrosse in Philadelphia. She notes that working with younger athletes these days has forced her to evolve as a coach.

“I loved the college game and the Division I level because of the competition,” DeLuca said. “But working with younger athletes, you have to break the game down much more so that kids can understand it. That has made me a better coach.”