From the women’s lacrosse world cup to Colorado Mesa University (CMU).
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Taylor Jakeman played on the New Zealand U19 team in the women’s lacrosse world championships the year before coming to CMU. She took a year off after graduating from St. Peter’s School Cambridge and said that she learned a lot about the game during her year off.
She began playing lacrosse at the age of 15 and has had to adapt to different styles of lacrosse throughout her career. New Zealand lacrosse focuses on size and speed, and the U.S. plays with more finesse and strategy.
“It was a very young sport, like I think it’s, it’s been going for a lot of years, but it’s only really been popular for like 10 years. I started playing when I was 15, so I wasn’t very good with like stick skills, I just could run. That’s what New Zealand lacrosse is just strong physical girls that can just like run. So, coming here, it’s more technical. There’s a lot more to it. And I’m just like into it, so that was different,” Jakeman said.
I took a year off from high school and coming here. I played at the World Cup in Canada in 2019 and that was super crazy, because I was coming from playing like top teams in the world, and then came here it was like, wow. The level is insane.”
Playing in the women’s lacrosse world championships allowed Jakeman to see different styles of lacrosse and grow her game every year. They played Germany, Scotland, Wales, Japan and Puerto Rico at the world championships, and her next season of college lacrosse was cut short by COVID in 2020.
In her first season under Head Coach Shannon McHale, Jakeman played in all 13 games and started in 12 games for CMU. She finished with the sixth-most points on the team in 2021 with 19 points.
Jakeman continued to grow her game in her second year under Head Coach Shannon McHale.
“Last year with her coaching I definitely improved, but I was a midfielder. This year I’m an attacker and I just feel like I’m improving a lot more and I think the combinations and stuff are really helping me as well. The coaching like the practices and everything, I’m just learning so much. I never really knew how to attack the cage before and now, I know how to,” Jakeman said.
She is the second-leading scorer for the Mavericks with 32 points. She has scored 22 goals and dished out 10 assists this year.
“I think TJ [Taylor] works hard. There were a lot of them that stayed after practice yesterday and worked on specific little technical things, so they are putting the time in. Watching film, watching some Division I game film, trying to get better options and TJ is one of the players who does that quite often,” McHale said.
Jakeman has registered at least one point in 10 of the 11 games that the Mavericks have played this year, and she scored three game-winning goals this year for CMU.
One of her game-winning goals came against Saint Leo University on the spring break trip to Florida. Redshirt sophomore attacker Regan Wentz tied the game up with five seconds remaining in regulation, and Jakeman brought home the win just 34 seconds into overtime.
She posted her career-high in both points and goals against the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) with seven goals. She was a key part in closing out UCCS to pull off the 19-15 win as she scored four goals in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t really realize at the time how much I was scoring. So, when I finished the game, I came off and someone was like, you know you have seven goals. I was like ‘what’, because a lot of them were off assists and stuff like that. It was one of the best games that I’ve played in a while. I got sent off in the first quarter with a black eye and a bruised nose and just came back and was like well let me just score a few more goals on you guys,” Jakeman said.
The Mavericks next game is Thursday, April 14 at 3:00 p.m. against Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.
