Fox Lane’s Toppe and Tracy Named All-Americans

To earn All-American honors once is a tremendous honor, but to do it twice, with one of your teammates no less, is even better.

That is the case for Fox Lane girls lacrosse players, senior Lindsay Toppe and junior Sammy Jo Tracy, who both for the second year in a row were named All-Americans. Toppe plays attack and Tracy is a midfielder.

Toppe, who is playing at Cornell University in Ithaca next year, led Section 1 this season with 111 goals and totaled 145 points. As for her legendary career at Fox Lane, Toppe registered an incredible 412 goals to go along with 111 assists.

“It is awesome to get the recognition from the coaches who pick it and everyone else who has something to do with the award,” Toppe said. “It’s just a good feeling to be recognized as a player who can compete at a high level of competition.”

When asked what she will miss about playing with Toppe, Tracy said, “Everything.”

“She is just an amazing player to have on the field,” Tracy said. “She makes me look good, she makes the team look good. We have a connection on and off the field. I know how she plays, I know where she is going to be. I am going to miss that.”

Likewise, Toppe said that she is going to miss the type of chemistry she had playing with Tracy, who is already committed to play at the University of North Carolina upon her graduation at Fox Lane (18-1).

“We know each other so well that we always have a sense of where each other will be and when to look for one another,” Toppe said.

Toppe and Tracy have been able to develop that type of chemistry because they have known each other since at least fourth grade, according to Tracy. That’s why being able to share the All-American glory with Toppe for two years in a row is so meaningful to her.

“It means a lot to me,” Tracy said. “It just shows that my hard work pays off and same with Lindsay Toppe, she works so hard and it paid off for her as well.”

While both Tracy and Toppe worked hard to be All-Americans, it wasn’t the most important thing to them. What was the most important thing to Fox Lane’s dynamic duo was seeing the Foxes as a team get better.

“We never went out there and stepped on the field and said, ‘We are going to be All-American’,” Toppe said. “Every day in practice, Sammy and I just went out there and tried to make our teammates better and ourselves better so that we could compete with teams like Yorktown and Lakeland/Panas and John Jay. That is where our success came from.”

Tracy concurred. “We both wanted to became better lacrosse players and get to the states again after making the state finals last year,” she said. “Unfortunately, we lost to Yorktown in the sectional finals, 16-15, but it was an amazing game for both teams.”

Besides being one of Section 1’s eight All-Americans, Toppe was also named an Under Armour All-American  player this year, the only Section 1 player to do so.

That earned Toppe the right to play for the girls North squad in the Sixth Annual Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic. The game will be held at Towson University’s Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md., Saturday, July 2, at 4 p.m.

There she will play on the same team with one of her future Cornell teammates, Christine Ferguson, who plays defense. Ferguson is from Weston, Mass., and attends St. Paul High School.

“I really enjoy the coaches at Cornell a lot,” Toppe said. “They are all very personable, I don’t feel uncomfortable talking to any of them which is good. I am just really excited to be able to bring my lacrosse game to another level.”