Jane Earley continues to make history in her lacrosse journey

Lacrosse sticks have long been a common sight in the Earley household. That was due to Mike Earley playing lacrosse at The Roxbury Latin School (high school), Bowdoin College and coaching at various schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One day, his daughter Jane Earley decided to pick up one of those sticks and try lacrosse. It’s safe to say that she made the right decision.

Falmouth Academy graduate Earley just finished her senior lacrosse season at Middlebury College, and was named the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year, Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Player of the Year and Attacker of the Year for the second straight season for all three awards. In her senior season, she led the conference in points (106) and draw controls (138), while ranking second in goals (74) and assists (32).

“The first time around it's really exciting, and being able to sustain that level of play for a second year, is kind of hard and rewarding in the end,” Jane Earley said. “I think lacrosse is a team sport, so it kind of speaks to my teammates showing up everyday and the defense making stops, that way I can do my thing on offense.”

In addition to her individual accolades, Jane Earley also helped the Panthers to three straight NCAA Championships (Middlebury didn’t play in 2020 and 2021). That includes a perfect season (23-0) this past spring, which is a program record.

“Going into the season you don’t expect it to be perfect,” Jane Earley said. “It’s easy to think ‘oh, we’re the best and we can take a day off and relax, and we’ll still be the best,’ but we didn’t do that. At the end, it came with a sense of relief because I knew we wanted it really badly, but I also knew a perfect season is a rare and hard thing to put together.”

The decision for Middlebury

Middlebury College was not the first option on Jane Earley’s list of schools. She had another school in mind, but like the competitor she is, called an audible at the last second.

“I originally committed to Boston College,” Jane Earley said. “Going to Middlebury was a decision based on academics, but I also knew Middlebury was a really talented lacrosse team with the tradition of winning. I always knew I wanted to go to Middlebury, and I’m glad I was able to make that happen.”

When Jane Earley first arrived at Middlebury, the coaching staff didn’t really know too much about her because of her recruitment process through Boston College. Middlebury women’s lacrosse head coach Kate Livesay said that Jane Earley wasn’t even on their radar at first.

“We didn’t really know a lot about her except that her club coaches raved about her that she was outstanding,” Livesay said. “We (were) confident she was going to make an impact at Middlebury, but we just weren’t sure exactly what that would look like. We didn’t know if she would be a goal scorer, or a midfielder.”

They started her off a little bit at midfield as a freshman because they wanted her to impact both sides of the ball. It wasn’t until her fifth game in a 21-18 win over Bowdoin (ironically Mike Earley’s alma mater) that she broke out onto the scene. She finished the game with five goals, and nine draw controls.

“We had her on the draw circle and she was winning critical draws, and then going down and scoring, so we just kind of kept her on offense, realizing she had a great ability to finish, and honestly from that point on, she just became such an important aspect of our offense, and really provided us the depth we needed,” Livesay said.

She finished her freshman year in 2019 with 68 points (51 goals, 17 assists), a .726 shots on goal percentage, 26 ground balls, 27 forced turnovers, and 50 draw controls. After losing 11-10 to Bates in the first regular game, the Panthers went 22-0 for their first NCAA Championship since 2016.

The following season, Jane Earley set a single-season program record for goals (80) and points (99), which led to her teammates voting her captain her senior season. Jane Earley said being captain was an added challenge because of the success that they were having.

“I think it’s more of a reflection of how her teammates feel about her and just the loyalty, trust and admiration they have for her that led to that choice,” Livesay said. “It was a great choice and she was a really good captain, who really helped everyone more than they probably even know, to reach their goals as a team.”

Jane Earley ended her Middlebury career with 290 points (217 goals, 73 assists), 68 ground balls, 100 forced turnovers, and 257 draw controls in 72 games.

Falmouth Academy

Before her historic run at Middlebury, Jane Earley started playing varsity lacrosse at Falmouth Academy as an eighth grader. Despite her young age, the talent was there as she finished with 55 goals, 16 assists and 35 draw controls.

“Obviously it's really exciting playing varsity as an eighth grader,” Jane Earley said. “FA showed me how to be a leader on the field even when I was a freshman and sophomore. On top of that, being a junior and senior, it taught me how to perform every day. Learning to teach others and bring others along with me was a huge part of what I took away from FA playing lacrosse.”

Jane Earley’s play on the field spoke for itself, and she was named captain her junior and senior seasons. Each season since her eighth grade year, she increased her goal and assist total. She finished her high school career with 479 goals (school record), 141 assists and 380 draw controls. She was named the MIAA Cape and Islands League MVP in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. During her five years on varsity, the Mariners had a record of 79-9-1.

“Jane is the best lacrosse player to come out of Falmouth Academy, and probably Cape Cod,” Falmouth Academy girls lacrosse Coach Sarah Knowles said. “I was the lucky one to have had Jane on the Falmouth Academy lacrosse team.  She possesses a lacrosse IQ that surpassed my own as a coach.  She taught me so much as a coach and prompted me to analyze the game in a deeper way.”

In addition to lacrosse, Jane Earley also played basketball and soccer and was valedictorian of her class.

What’s next for Jane?

Due to COVID-19, Jane Earley has one year of eligibility left and will use that to play another year. However, it will not be with Middlebury. She will be taking her talents to Denver University to play a year of Division I lacrosse. While there, she will be receiving her master’s in Organizational Leadership.

“I’m excited about it. They (Denver Univ.) had a really good year this year, so I’m excited to join a team again with another winning culture, and I’m excited to explore Colorado,” Jane Earley said.

After she receives her master’s degree, she hopes to stay in Denver or move to Boston, where she hopes to connect with some of her friends. She also has some professional plans for the future.

“I am really interested in working at potentially some startup positions where I can be a part of a lot of different parts of the company, and do the most work possible without being stuck in a cubicle all day.”

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CJ_Journalist

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Jane Earley wins Athlete of the Year and NCAA Championship in college