Team USA players Michelle Tumolo and Becca Block go way back with Katrina Dowd, the former Team USA star and now their boss at Oregon.

Dowd was playing at Northwestern when she first met Tumolo, who was a big-time recruit. Later, they played together on Team USA.

Dowd then coached Tumolo and Block during their time at Syracuse, serving as an assistant under Gary Gait in 2012 — the year the Orange advanced to the NCAA championship game. Since then, the three have played together with Team USA and in the UWLX.

“We’ve been pretty connected on the lacrosse field,” Dowd said.

By last year, they were close enough to talk about their future — one that involved college coaching. All three were assistant coaches at elite Division I schools, with Dowd at North Carolina, Tumolo at Syracuse and Block at Florida. They joked about when they would get their big break.

“We were like, ‘Oh, who’s going to be a head coach first? We can all work together,’” Block said. “Obviously, it was going to be Katrina.”

After helping to lead North Carolina to its second NCAA title in four years, Dowd accepted the top job at Oregon last summer. She immediately went after Tumolo and Block to be her assistants, and it wasn’t long before they accepted.

A few months into their first season with Oregon, Dowd, Tumolo and Block hope to build a western powerhouse to compete with future Pac-12 foes Colorado, Stanford and USC. At the same time, they’re preparing for the FIL Women’s World Cup, albeit for different countries.

Tumolo and Block will play for the U.S., while Dowd will serve as an assistant under Gait, Scott Teeter and rival Team Canada. Will there be some smack talk in store for the Oregon coaching staff?

“Every day,” Tumolo joked.

Dowd noted that recruiting has been easier with the star power that she has in her assistants. Players want to be around Tumolo and Block, and they learn from them.

Not to mention, the draw of joining the Pac-12 in 2018 has the Oregon coaching staff excited.

“Oregon was a sleeping giant,” Dowd said. “We had all the ingredients to get to that next level – and then you bring in coaches like Michelle and Becca. With the exposure of lacrosse and lacrosse on TV, [recruits] have been watching Michelle and Becca on the field, and they get to see them in the other light as a coach.”