Northwestern women’s lacrosse standout Izzy Scane will miss the 2022 season after having surgery to repair a torn ACL, the Tewaaraton Award finalist confirmed with USA Lacrosse Magazine. Scane suffered the injury during fall ball.
Scane, a 2019 U.S. U19 women’s national team member who trained with the senior team over the summer, posted a picture Sunday of her recovering from surgery in the hospital on Instagram.
“I’m very sad to announce I unfortunately won’t be on the field with my best friends while they kick butt this year,” she wrote. “But I couldn’t be luckier with the people I have supporting me and helping me get back, and I’m very excited to grow as a person and teammate through all of this.”
Scane scored 98 goals for the Wildcats, the third-highest single-season total in NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse history — four shy of the record 102 scored by Boston College’s Charlotte North last spring and two fewer than the previous record held by Stony Brook’s Courtney Murphy. Her injury comes as a blow to a Northwestern team that has enjoyed a resurgence ever since she stepped on campus as a freshman in 2019. Scane has led the Wildcats to the final four in each of her two full seasons (there was no NCAA tournament in 2020) and has two years of eligibility remaining.
But Northwestern need look no further than Syracuse, the team that beat the Wildcats in the NCAA semifinals last May, for an example of how to overcome the loss of star power. The Orange advanced to the NCAA championship game for the first time since 2014 despite losing Tewaaraton candidate Emily Hawryschuk and Scane’s U.S. U19 teammate Megan Carney to season-ending ACL injuries.
Northwestern, which finished 15-1 and went undefeated against a Big Ten-only schedule, was tabbed No. 4 in USA Lacrosse Magazine’s early 2022 rankings. The Wildcats might slide some without Scane, not to mention the graduations of Sammy Mueller and Lindsey McKone. But Lauren Gilbert (66 goals) is coming off a monster season of her own and the Wildcats boast a perennial top-10 draw unit — a trait that dates back to the dynasty days when they won seven of eight NCAA championships from 2005-12.
Several of Scane’s U.S. teammates commented on her Instagram post. The injury likely also will prevent her from making a run at the U.S. roster for the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s World Championship.
“Can’t wait to see you come back stronger than ever,” Marie McCool commented. “You got this.”