Hommel Comes Home To Vie For Lax National Title

Makenzie Hommel looks fondly upon the last time she played at LaValle Stadium on the campus of Stony Brook University. As a sophomore at Ward Melville, she powered the Patriots to the 2007 Suffolk County Class A title, ending a 14-year drought.

Hommel’s new squad, Duke University, has waited a long time to raise the hardware as well. It hasn’t won a national championship since they began being given out in 1978.

This weekend at SBU, which hosts the Division I Women’s Lacrosse Final Four, Hommel hopes to celebrate another title in front of her home crowd.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience,” Hommel said. “Not many people get to play in their hometown. It’s surreal.” 

The fifth-seeded Blue Devils are joined in the Final Four by three teams who they’ve lost to this season. In the semifinals, they face top seed Maryland (5 p.m.), which defeated Duke 18-11 in the teams’ first meeting on February 25. The other semifinal (7:30 p.m.) pits No. 2 Northwestern against No. 3 North Carolina, with which Duke accompanied on a charter flight Thursday.

“We have unfinished business with these teams,” Hommel said. “We’ve grown so much as a team since we played them and are beyond ready to compete.”

At Ward Melville, Hommel led the Patriots to the county championship in 2007 and twice earned All-American Honorable Mention accolades. In her senior year alone, Hommel racked up 93 goals and 25 assists.

As a freshman at Duke, she and the fellow freshmen watched and learned from her upperclassman teammates. Hommel’s come on strong during her sophomore year in Durham, piling up 19 goals and five assists in 16 games. She’s scored a goal in each of the Blue Devils’ playoff victories – a 12-9 win over 12th-seeded Penn and a 13-9 triumph at fourth-ranked Florida.

“[The sophomores] came out strong and in shape and showed a lot in the fall,” Hommel said. “Everyone put forth their best effort in practice because no one knew who or where they were going to play.”

She’s part of a Duke attack that has averaged nearly 17 goals per game this season.

“We have a pretty good subbing rotation,” Hommel said. “There’s no specific thing I’m asked to do, so I just go out there and hope to make an impact.”

She, like the rest of the team, will stay at a hotel near McArthur Airport as long as Duke’s still playing. However, the Hommels are arranging a tailgate at their house for Blue Devil players, their families and the coaching staff. Hommel expects a good turnout at the stadium this weekend, with some familiar faces sprinkled throughout the stands.