Sydni Black had a breakout senior season for the Loyola women’s lacrosse team this past spring, smashing her previous career highs. The 5-foot-3 attacker put together a 106-point season on 76 goals and 30 assists, becoming one of three Greyhounds to record more than 100 points, joining Georgia Latch and Chase Boyle.
In a stellar senior season, Black earned Patriot League Attacker of the Year and her second straight Patriot League Championship MVP honor after scoring 12 points across two Patriot League tournament games.
“She is just one of the most phenomenal players I’ve ever coached and I just find her exciting and her brand of lacrosse is truly transformational,” Loyola coach Jen Adams said.
Loyola fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to No. 8 Penn, 12-9, bringing Black’s college career to a close this spring. Despite graduating in May, Black’s lacrosse career is not over. She was the No. 5 pick in the Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse College Draft in May and shared that special moment with her teammates.
“I was very lucky to hear my name amongst those other phenomenal players but also having my teammates around me,” Black said. “Pretty much the whole team came over to my house and we watched the draft and it was just something you dream of since you were a little girl.”
Adams believes Black is a player who can “help transform women’s lacrosse altogether.” She is excited to see Black continue to grow as a lacrosse player and cheer her on from the stands this season and potentially beyond.
The Athletes Unlimited lacrosse season begins in July and lasts several weeks. All the games will be played at the USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md., where Black looks to make a name for herself playing with and against some of her former Loyola teammates in attacker Livy Rosenzweig and defender Katie Detwiler.
“My goal is to have as much fun as I can,” Black said. “This is bonus lacrosse for me … so I’m really excited to just play as best as I can.”
Detwiler says Black and other rookies should expect a learning curve since they are playing with and against the best athletes in the country, but Detwiler believes Black will fit right in with the other players, noting her speed and strong dodging ability.
“I think her speed will take her a long way in the league and [help her] get that extra step on defenders but definitely want to be on her team,” Detwiler said, referring to how teams change weekly in the league. “… She’s a very shifty dodger so I’ll be interested to see just how her game grows.”
Black learned the basics of lacrosse in Virginia before her family relocated to Cincinnati, not a traditional lacrosse hotbed, when she was 12 years old. She played club lacrosse at Ohio Midwestern Force, now known as Major Force Lacrosse. From ages 14 to 18, Black and her mother Sheryl drove enough miles to drive across the United States and back three times, allowing Black to participate in tournaments and gain exposure to college programs before committing to Loyola.
Besides coming from a non-traditional lacrosse area, Black is also one of the few African American Division I women’s lacrosse players in a sport where the majority of players are white. Black was one of two African American athletes on the Loyola roster this past season.
“I never thought too much about it until I got to college when I realized that there really weren’t many people who looked like me or girls of color playing the sport,” Black said. “Our coaching staff recruits such diverse people to the program that are just amazing people and they give us this platform to be able to speak up and out about it.”
Black grew into a leader both on and off the lacrosse field. She earned the captain role during her final two seasons at Loyola, which she considers her greatest honor. Black has found ways to use her platform to inspire others, whether it is becoming a role model for young players of color who send her Instagram direct messages or her endeavors off the field at Loyola.
Besides lacrosse, Black was involved in Student Athletes for Social Justice, Loyola’s Diversity Advisory Board and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Last fall, Black spoke to more than 800 of Maryland’s biggest corporate leaders at Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year event.
“It was important to me to be involved in the community that I was a part of outside of lacrosse, and [the coaching staff] reassured me and oftentimes pushed me to do a lot of these things because they knew how important it was to our development as human beings,” Black said.
Black graduated in May with a double degree in information systems data analytics and business management. She has a job lined up as a government contractor, which will enable Black to take the next steps in her non-lacrosse endeavors while still balancing her professional lacrosse career.
“When you get the gifted student-athlete and the incredible person that is just philanthropic and willing to give their time and energy to passions and things outside of themselves, I don’t know that I’ve coached a player that has all three of those things to the degree that Sydni Black does,” Adams said.
Photo Credit: Larry French
Originally published June 19, 2024