Weekly Cover: Sam Apuzzo, Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse Champion

SPARKS, Md. — Sam Apuzzo has no power left in her voice. She’s hoarse, exhausted from the five-week Athletes Unlimited campaign that culminated in a loud, raucous celebration with her first championship at USA Lacrosse headquarters Sunday.

It also could have something to do with the way she celebrates scoring goals, the cumulative toll of every throat-rattling roar and divot-inducing stick spike.

“Quick to the point. Spiked with no regret. Bounce was tremendous. Goal was fabulous,” Rob Gronkowski tweeted after one such demonstration during the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s Championship that made it to “SportsCenter.”

He rated it 9 of 10.

“Appreciate the feedback Gronk,” the normally demure Apuzzo replied. “But why only a 9?”

The Apuzzo Celly, you see, has become the Gronk Spike of women’s lacrosse, a rite the fourth-year pro has performed more frequently (119 career goals) than anyone in Athletes Unlimited history.

What compels someone so soft-spoken — someone so distressed by sudden loud noises that she almost fell off the pedestal when the confetti cannon shot colorful lengths of crêpe paper at her face Sunday — to exult to the point of laryngitis?

“Something comes over me,” Apuzzo confessed. “That’s not my personality at all. I become a whole different being when that happens.”

Apuzzo celebrates hard because scoring goals is hard even when it looks easy. Athletes Unlimited outfits certain players with microphones for ESPN broadcasts. You hear them gasp for air as they attempt to free themselves of a defender to get a shot on goal. With just 56 players on the AU roster, every matchup pits All-American vs. All-American.

“That’s why I love lacrosse,” Apuzzo said. “We’re all at this point at Athletes Unlimited that we’ve become masters at the sport. When we can put the ball in the back of the net, it’s such a beautiful thing that needs to be celebrated.”

Apuzzo has become the face of Athletes Unlimited, the only pro women’s lacrosse outfit to last longer than three years. She’s a ranking member of the Player Executive Committee and before this season inked an endorsement deal with Cascade Maverik, one of the league’s supporting partners.

“She’s the best player in the world right now,” Hofstra women’s lacrosse coach Shannon Smith said. “One hundred percent. I can say that without a doubt in my mind.”

Smith coached Apuzzo as a teenager with Long Island Top Guns and helped put her on the path that led to a record-setting career at Boston College. Both are from West Babylon, the South Shore hamlet that has produced a steady stream of Division I prospects over the last 15 years.

Now an assistant coach at BC, Apuzzo returned to West Babylon to train for this Athletes Unlimited season. Before she left, Smith issued a friendly challenge.

“Hey, don’t screw it up this year,” she said. “Let’s come in first. Enough of second place.”

Ah, the elephant in the room. Apuzzo never realizes just how many times she has had to settle for second until someone reminds her as much. She was Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s prized recruit who delivered on her promise by leading the Eagles to three consecutive NCAA championship games and winning the Tewaaraton Award in 2018.

But they fell in all three finals.

Then came AU and agonizingly close finishes in 2022 and 2023, when goalie Taylor Moreno edged her for the No. 1 spot on the leaderboard by 17 and 12 points, respectively — the latter deficit the equivalent of one measly goal.

“She kind of got the short end of the stick when it comes to winning championships,” said Sam Geiersbach, who scored two goals to break a halftime tie in Team Apuzzo’s title-clinching 13-10 win over Team North. “She would trade any of this for a national championship when she was playing [at BC].”

It’s part of the reason Apuzzo switched back to wearing No. 2 this year. When she signed with Athletes Unlimited prior to the inaugural season in 2021, Holly McGarvie Reilly, the revered veteran midfielder, had dibs on the number.

Numbers never mattered much to Apuzzo. She wore 12 in high school but switched to 2 when she got to BC because of Emma Schurr. She chose 16 with the U.S. Women’s National Team in deference to goalie Liz Hogan.

So, for no reason in particular, she chose No. 14 in Athletes Unlimited, paying no mind to the decision until something prompted her to reconsider it this year. She started thinking about her legacy, how she would want to be remembered when her playing career has run its course.

“I went back and forth with my family,” Apuzzo said. “Does it make sense to go back to 2? I wanted consistency. I wanted that to be the number that I retire in. I want to finish my lacrosse career as No. 2. It was so special to me at BC and meant a lot to where my game came from and where it went in my career.”

Apuzzo, who turns 27 next month, swore the switch had no connection to the pattern of second-place finishes that heretofore had haunted her. But something felt right Sunday seeing No. 2 finish No. 1 for a change.

“She finally got it,” said Geiersbach, who grew up on the same street as Apuzzo and won a USA Lacrosse U15 national championship with her more than a decade ago. “She deserves it so much.”

Apuzzo entered the final week of play with a narrow 53-point lead over Charlotte North. Moreno and Ally Kennedy also remained within striking distance. A team captain for the 12th straight week (the longest streak in any AU sport), the league’s deftest drafter used her first two picks on dynamic midfielders Dempsey Arsenault and Ally Mastroianni, rounded out the attack with Geiersbach and Erin Coykendall and somehow managed to construct a defense of Lizzie Colson, Abby Bosco and Meg Douty in the middle rounds.

Apuzzo was in danger of losing ground, however, when her team trailed by two with less than a minute remaining in a Thursday night showdown with Team Kennedy. But she scored with 50 seconds left in regulation and Mastroianni’s free-position goal with seven seconds remaining sent the game to overtime — also known as Apuzzo time. She swept across the arc and nailed a righty bouncer to secure the 13-12 win and earn the MVP1 nod, a 90-point swing.

Two days later, playing in the 100th game in Athletes Unlimited lacrosse history, Apuzzo again delivered in overtime, this time on a lefty overhand bounce shot for a 9-8 win over Team Moreno and another MVP1 selection.

“Every time it’s a do-or-die situation, just get it to Sam,” said Arsenault, who played with Apuzzo at BC and with the U.S. team and shared a suite with her for the duration of the AU season. “She always puts the team on her back.”

When Apuzzo scored two first-quarter goals during a dominant first quarter against Team North — and North herself appeared limited by a knee injury — it became readily evident that this year’s leaderboard race would not go down to the wire.

Apuzzo improved to 27-9 as a captain and finished the season with 1,852 points, nearly 200 more than North.

And yet afterward, North was the first to get her hands on Apuzzo to hug her before the rest of the AU roster rushed the field to hoist her in the air while chanting her name. They all wanted this for her.

“That was such a special moment that I will remember for the rest of my life,” she said. “You only get that in sports.”