Lillian Stout remembers sitting in a Maryland airport during the spring of her sophomore year at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass. The Hanover native was coming home from a two-week lacrosse tournament when a call came in from St. Mark’s girls lacrosse coach Channing Warner.
The Princeton University women’s lacrosse team was holding a recruiting camp next week, Stout remembers Warner telling her: “You need to be there.”
Princeton already had been on Stout’s mind, as one of many collegiate options the talented midfielder was considering for the next step in her lacrosse career. She had been emailing colleges since her freshman year at Hanover High, signing up for camps and tournaments to get herself enough exposure to be noticed by the right collegiate program. So she signed up for the Princeton camp.
When Stout arrived at the Princeton camp the following week, she learned there were five athletes competing for one more spot in that year’s recruiting class.
Chris Sailer, Princeton’s 31-year head coach, called Stout the next day and asked if she wanted to commit to the Tigers.
“After that, I stopped looking at other schools,” Stout said in a phone interview last week. “I love the coach. I loved the campus.”
Princeton’s resume is an impressive one: The Tigers have won 15 Ivy League titles since the program’s inception in 1973. The Tigers hold a 448-231-7 all time record, are 183-65-1 in the Ivy League, have won four consecutive Ivy League titles and have made five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, reaching the NCAA quarterfinals twice in the last three seasons.
Stout’s future was settled.
Stout grew up in the Upper Valley. She went to Crossroads Academy until fourth grade and graduated through the Hanover school system until her freshman year, picking up field hockey, hockey and girls lacrosse at a young age. It was lacrosse, however, that really caught her attention.
“It came really naturally to me, honestly,” she said. “I remember my first game in sixth grade, I didn’t know how to play. I got the ball and just started running. It was so much fun. I had never had that much fun.”
She played one season, her freshman year, at Hanover High before transferring to St. Mark’s.
“She’s a very heady player with aggression, good aggression,” Hanover coach Chris Seibel said. “On the field, she’s very fast. We knew she was going to play college hockey or lacrosse. It didn’t matter. … She was a competitor from the get-go. She competed for everything.”
Stout’s speed was what Warner noticed almost immediately. It didn’t take long for Stout to change the dynamic of her team.
“Her speed stood out right away. She’s a really fast, really strong athlete,” Warner said on Monday. “Other teams were just unable to deter her from her drive. She just went all the way in and made a scoring play happen. When she has a task she’s trying to get done, it’s hard to steer her off her course. She’s run through a brick wall for me and for the team.”
Stout has scored 146 goals over her four years at St. Mark’s; the Lions (9-1 overall, 6-0 in Independent School League play) have eight more games to go this spring. She also has 64 assists and 63 draw controls to her name. She was named an All-ISL selection last season as a junior, leading the league in scoring. She also reached the 100-goal milestone last spring.
“She was playing with all new midfielders,” Warner said of Stout’s season last year. “She was leading by example. I could count on her for anything. … She’s so good about sharing her knowledge, she trained those other two midfielders. She’s the guiding member of our team, willing to share and make the kids around her better.”
This season, Stout has scored 34 goals with 17 assists and 32 draw controls, and she’s caused 11 turnovers. Warner said Stout is closing in on St. Mark’s record for career goals, and will likely finish either first or second in program history.
College lacrosse — and, more specifically NCAA Division I college lacrosse — had been a dream of hers since the eighth grade, when she started joining club teams in the region. Stout had watched Hannah Seibel, Chris’ daughter, go through her own recruiting process before she eventually committed to Georgetown University, where she was an all-Big East selection last year. It gave Stout a sense of what was ahead of her.
But it wasn’t until Stout’s sophomore year at St. Mark’s that she noticed her play was at a different level than some of her peers.
“That’s when it really dawned on me,” Stout said. “That’s when I got most of my confidence, I think. That year is when my stick skills really developed. I always had the athleticism, I could run fast and play at a high level, but my stick skills need to be at the same level. I remember putting a lot of work into it.”
She also was playing with a pair of midfielders — one of them Tess D’Orsi, a Sudbury, Mass. native two years ahead of Stout who is now a sophomore at Princeton — who helped elevate her game.
“They were using me, playing alongside me,” she said. “Working with them helped me realize I could play at the next level.”
Warner knew Stout had what it took much earlier than that.
“Right away,” Warner said. “Her stick skills, her grit, her lacrosse IQ. She’s really smart. But her speed sets her apart. … Speed is something that, obviously, is hard to teach. I thought she had what college coaches could work with. She kept working on her shot, her assists, her defense. She still had to perfect her game. But she put in the extra time.”
Stout played varsity field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse at St. Mark’s, a school choice she said helped her both balance her academic and athletic life and prepare her for the intense competition level of college athletics.
Warner said her hockey background has made her tough and gritty, allowing her to take a physical toll and not get fazed. But in Stout’s mind, lacrosse has always meant something more.
“It’s how quickly the game can change; you can score really fast,” Stout said. “It’s how you can take control of a game, the momentum can shift so fast with just a couple of goals. I love how dynamic the sport is. Not only do you have to move the ball and know the plays, you have to be smart and know what you’re doing. It’s a really good, fast sport.
“They can’t stop her,” Warner added. “She’s really unstoppable driving in, when she’s shooting the ball, it’s all with force and focus. Teams will struggle to defend her next year. … She’s got a lot of potential.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.