How do you define success? Is it a person or team that is good at what they do? Maybe it is measured by how much you produce on the field and how much you accomplish. Here at Hofstra and in lacrosse we have one name to define success: Alyssa Parrella. Since her first step onto the turf at James M. Shuart Stadium, Parrella has emerged not only as one of the best players in Hofstra history, but across the country.

Before Hofstra, the Long Island native saw her love for lacrosse begin with her family. “The game of lacrosse really started when my brother started playing and then my sister, and I followed in their footsteps,” Parrella said. “My parents never played lacrosse and they don’t even think they knew what lacrosse was when they were in high school.”

A lacrosse player at Miller Place High School, Parrella wanted to stay close to home and saw an opportunity arise at Hofstra. “The No. 1 thing is just because it’s so close to home. A lot of girls on this team are either from Long Island or from close states,” Parrella said. “We don’t really have many people that are from very far away.”

Parrella is now in her senior year and has amassed 204 goals in her career, ranking her first in Hofstra career goals. She is only the fifth player in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) to score 200 goals and the only active NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse player to hold the honor.

While also leading Hofstra in career goals, Parrella is 15 goals from being the all-time leader in CAA history. “It’s something surreal. You don’t think of how great of accomplishment it really is until it’s there,” Parrella said. “At the same time, I think that seeing our ranking as No. 20 in Nike’s rankings this week was more of an accomplishment for me than my own [accomplishment].”

Lucky number 200 came in a career-setting performance in an eight-goal display against Wagner College in Hofstra’s 15-8 win. “I honestly had no idea it was my 200 goal. I didn’t find out until after the game when one of my teammates came up to me and they said that was my 200 goal and I was like, ‘Wow! That’s awesome!’” Parrella said. “Once I found out, it was a great honor and it really reflects the hard work I’ve been doing my entire career at Hofstra, but I could not have done it without the team.”

But even a stellar resume like Parrella’s is never complete. Now the team has a new focus: winning the conference championship. Entering the 13th season since Hofstra’s last championship, the Pride look forward to having a team that can match the 2007 team that won Hofstra’s first and only CAA title.

“We want to prove to ourselves and everyone else how good of the team we are. We want to come back and make a name for ourselves and show that we can be on top and win the conference championship,” Parrella said. “We’ve been trying to do that since I was a freshman and this senior class is something special. The team we have this year is amazing; we have so much skill and hard work on this team, so we have every ability to do so.”

To win the CAA championship, however, Hofstra will need to get past one team in particular: No. 18 James Madison University.

“It’s going to be having that mentality, stepping onto the field in knowing that we can do it; our team knowing can do it and [leaving] it all out there on the field,” Parrella said. “I think skill-wise and lacrosse-wise we have every ability to do it.”

The special bond formed among the players has them ready to take on anyone that crosses Hofstra’s path.

“I think anybody on this field would do anything for each other. We have girls on this team that will fight for ground balls until their bodies are bruised and this team would go into war with each other,” Parrella said. “I know that we had this in the past; you can just feel it’s different this year.”

The driving force behind Parrella’s career and the fired-up Pride team is their leader of eight years, Shannon Smith. For the past three seasons Smith has coached Parrella to be the leader of not only Hofstra, but the CAA.

“I learn something new from her every single day. She is brilliant when it comes to not only lacrosse but off the field too. She has so much experience and so much knowledge and she is so young still,” Parrella said. “She has definitely taught me not only how to be a better lacrosse player and increase my skill play, but she’s also taught me how to be a great leader.”

Smith was the leader of Northwestern University from 2009-12 where the Wildcats won three NCAA Championships. Smith also collected several high honors, including three first-team All-Americans, a Tewaaraton Award and a lacrosse Honda Sports Award (recognized as the top collegiate female athlete). Following in her coach’s footsteps, Parrella has been recognized as a third-team All-American, the 2019 CAA Player of the Year, and has been placed on the Tewaaraton watchlist.

“[Smith] was a leader for her team and has basically been the leader for everything she’s been through in her life. Just having her knowledge and having her mentorship about how to be a great leader has really helped me,” Parrella said. “I tend to be a very quiet person unless I’m very comfortable with you. She’s really helped me become more confident and a better leader and more of a hard worker than I came in as.”

Leading the Pride one last time, Parrella wants to be remembered for being part of the team that takes Hofstra’s program to the next step.

“Someone in 15 years looking back at not only me as a player, but that team, and being like, ‘Wow! That team in 2020, how did they win the conference championship? What did they do? What did their captains and leaders to? What did their coaches do?’” Parrella said. “Being able to look back and be like that’s the team that started the path for Hofstra to continue to be CAA champs. Starting that stepping stone for the girls, moving forward knowing that they can do it and having Hofstra on the map.”

Although winning is important, Parrella also wants to focus on enjoying her last season with the Pride and not stressing over little things. Having fun is advice she wishes she had received early in her career but wants to now pass it along to the underclassmen.

“Things are always going to feel harder than they really are, but at the end of the day you played this game because you love it. Remember why you do it and not so much about the stresses that come [with] it,” Parrella said. “You want to go out and have fun every day and play for your teammates and play for your coaches. I think that is the biggest thing and I wish I could’ve told myself this as a freshman.”

The future remains up in the air for Parrella as she wants to continue to embrace her final season. However, if the opportunity arises, continuing to play lac
rosse after Hofstra would be an amazing experience for her.

“If it’s an opportunity to play lacrosse in anyway I’ll definitely consider it. If there’s any opportunity to play with any of my teammates or past teammates or alumni that would honestly be amazing to me,” Parrella said. “I would love to have the opportunity to play again but I’m just going to see where goes not think about it too much because I don’t want [it] to end yet.”

Parrella has brought the Hofstra Pride to new heights and laid the framework for future teammates to follow. Now closing in on the all-time leader in CAA history in career goals, Parrella continues to prove herself as one of the greatest success stories in Hofstra history. With the games counting down until Parrella Hofstra career is complete and Parrella leading the charge, the 2020 team is destined for greatness.

Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics