Lacrosse: Lake Zurich's Handrahan savoring big finish at Augustana

Give mom Jayne Handrahan the assist for getting her daughter Emily into the sport of lacrosse.

And years later, Emily is now providing many assists for her teammates.

Emily, a Lake Zurich graduate, leads coach Meredith's Newman's highly-regarded Augustana women's lacrosse team with 47 assists and 76 points this season.

The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin power is 14-1 and 5-1 and can lock up its fourth straight undefeated league championship with a win over Carroll on Wednesday.

Thanks to her mother Jayne getting her older daughter Mary started in lacrosse, Emily took up the sport in eighth grade and has become one of the premier players in the CCIW.

Emily wears the 'quarterback sleeve,' a plastic armband that lists nearly 15 plays she can call out for the offense.

She was given the sleeve as a sophomore.

"That's when I started feeling like a leader on the team," said Emily, who started playing the sport while in middle school.

"When my sister (Mary, who played at Carthage) said she wasn't going to play basketball any more, my mom had her go to a summer lacrosse camp," Emily said. "My mom wanted her to take up another hobby and lacrosse ended up being it."

Mary would often take Emily into the backyard to practice the sport.

"I couldn't even catch the ball," Emily said. "I couldn't do anything. She'd (Mary) get upset with me because I wasn't good enough.

"So I'd go out there by myself and practiced until I got it right."

Emily sure got it right.

Her assists and points ranks nationally among NCAA schools.

Handrahan is thrilled to be able set up her teammates.

"I love it," she said. "I'm pretty good at feeding the ball into the eight-meter, which is the critical scoring area (near the net)."

Handrahan realized she might be able to play at the collegiate level when her coaches at her Lakeshore women's lacrosse club (branch in Lake Zurich) told her to look into the recruiting process.

"(Former Augustana) Coach (Sara) Tisdale (formerly head coach at Augustana) found me at a tournament when I was a sophomore in high school," Emily said. "She was recruiting one of my teammates on the travel team and then later drove all the way to Lake Zurich to watch me play."

Handrahan had also attracted some small D-I schools and D-IIs.

"But I just really wanted playing time as a freshman so I thought Augustana was the best fit," she said.

Handrahan also has years of coaching experience.

"I've been coaching since my freshman year in high school with the Illinois girls lacrosse association out of Lake Zurich," said Emily whose favorite moment at Augustana remains the postseason of her freshman year.

"In my first game as a freshman, we lost by a pretty good margin to the Redlands (University)," Emily said. "Somehow we made it to the national tournament by the end of the year and our first-round match was against Redlands. And we were like, 'oh no, we might lose again.'

"We were down by 7 points at half and then we started coming back in the second half."

All of a sudden the game was tied in the final minute.

With 12 seconds left, Handrahan got the ball and scored the winning goal with seven seconds left.

"It was amazing," she said.

And it jump-started a great career in which Handrahan has balanced sports and academics.

"It was tough at first learning about time management and how to live on your own," she said. "But I'd say by sophomore year I had it down pretty well.

"It's definitely tough to manage your studies but you do it to the best of your ability. The professors are really great at Augustana helping you with your schedule."

Handrahan plans to do post graduate work, maybe acquiring a master's degree in business.

But for now, she's enjoying her final competitive collegiate days of lacrosse.

Her favorite part of the game?

"When you make a really great play," she said. "Flawless execution of a play - I love that."

• Augustana junior Olivia Mayer (Libertyville) is tied for second on the team with 33 goals this spring. Mayer's 26 caused turnovers are a team high.

Orchard honored

University of Pittsburgh senior Amanda Orchard (Lake Zurich) of the women's volleyball team received a Panther Award at the annual Senior Awards Banquet held in the Petersen Events Center.

The Panther Award is presented to those seniors who have best promoted Pitt through The University of Pittsburgh Department of Athletics.

Orchard leaves Pitt as one of the top hitters in program history. A two-time AVCA honorable mention all-American, she holds the school record in career hitting percentage (. 369). She also owns the top two spots in the record book in single-season hitting percentage (. 431 in 2014 and .410 in 2015).

Orchard was a senior class award first-team honoree and also earned all-region and all-ACC accolades as a junior and senior season.

Men's track

Augustana sophomore Kyle Hucker (Wauconda) was a member of 4x400 relay team that closed out the Meet of Champions with a winning time of 3:12.12.

That is the fastest NCAA Division III time in the country this spring and it put the finishing touches on a solid team performance for veteran head coach Paul Olsen's team which took second place at the Paul V. Olsen Track in Rock Island.

Augustana placed second in the 13-team meet with 147.78 points, trailing just North Central.

• Augustana sophomore Kevin Barbian (Libertyville) was fourth in the discus (163 feet, 3 inches) and sixth in the shot (50-6).

• Augustana sophomore Evan Murphy (Buffalo Grove) was sixth in the triple jump (44-5¼).

• Augustana senior Hans Hunecke (Lakes) cleared 14-9 to place seventh in the pole vault.

Men's lacrosse

Augustana senior Tyler Amidei (Vernon Hills) leads the team (10-5, 3-0 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) with 11 caused turnovers.

Women's track

Augustana freshman Laura McNair (Lake Zurich) placed third (39:32.90) in the 10,000 meter run at the Meet of Champions at Paul V. Olsen Track in Rock Island. The Vikings finished third in the 13-team field.

Palomo to Augustana

Barrington senior Levi Palomo will play baseball for Augustana coach Greg Wallace.

A two-year varsity player for coach Pat Wire at Barrington, Palomo recently threw 5⅔ shutout innings in a 2-0 win over Jacobs.

He is involved in numerous extracurricular activities and service projects, including the fundraising program 'Go Beyond Barrington.'

Palomo was elected to the board this year.

He plans on majoring in international business and German studies.

Palomo will be joining a program that has won 25 games in 16 of the last 17 seasons.

• Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com.