Athletes Unlimited Weekend Wraparound: Cummings Tops Leaderboard, Goalies Shine in Week 4

We had to wait an extra day to watch the penultimate weekend of Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse after Friday’s contests were postponed due to inclement weather. Once the weather cleared up, the sun wasn’t the only thing shining as we saw some of the best games and individual performances of the season to date. The goalie play, in particular, stood out and resulted in two goalies finding themselves near the top of the leaderboard when games concluded.

We now enter the final week of the season with the individual title still totally up for grabs. It’s anyone’s gold medal to win and will largely depend on the outcomes of Week 5’s contests. Before diving into the rosters for the season’s final action, let’s recap Week 4 in Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse.

Week 4

Dempsey Arsenault (Gold), Kaya Wood (Orange), Taylor Cummings (Blue) and Kady Glynn (Purple) took the helm as captains for Week 4. Arsenault was unfortunately unable to participate due to an undisclosed injury. Her Team Gold teammate, Halle Majorana was also out due to injury.

Author’s Note: It was reported during the broadcast of the Athletes Unlimited Week 5 Draft that both Arsenault and Majorana would be unavailable for the final weekend of the season as well.

Kayla Treanor kicked off the weekend with her usual strong performance, this week for Team Glynn, scoring a hat trick against Team Arsenault. In total, Treanor had six goals and five assists on the weekend, totally 374 points, good for seventh on the AU Leaderboard. Had she not missed a week of competition, it’d be a safe bet to say that she would have a held a captain seat heading into the final week of play.

Despite the loss, Team Arsenault goalie, Britt Read has a strong showing in between the pipes. Read’s best performance of the weekend came against Team Glynn, where she recording 16 saves, the most of any goalie this season.

Sunday saw an absolutely dominating performance by Team Cummings, defeating Team Arsenault 16-9. While close after the first half of play, a 5-0 third quarter by Team Cummings turned out to be the difference. Kylie Ohlmiller had one of her best statistical performances of the season, netting five goals in the game, while teammate Emily Parros found the back of the cage four times.

Team Glynn had a successful 2-1 weekend, after Shayna Pirecca scored a two-pointer fading away from goal in the waning seconds of play to top Team Wood 13-11. Pirecca’s teammate, Ally Kennedy, had another strong performance in her rookie campaign, scoring her second hat trick of the season.

The individual championship will come down to the final week and, most likely, the final game of the season. If the gameplay up to this point is any indication of what to expect heading into the final six games of the AU’s inaugural season, we are in for a wild Week 5!

Epoch Moments of the Week

It is always a blast to watch Tums’ creativity and this long range two-pointer is just another example. Her field presence is is bar none. She hit this from nearly the the draw circle! That’s Steph Curry/Diana Taurasi range. She’s so cool.

Kayla Wood has been at or close to the top of the AU Leaderboard since the beginning of the season because she does it all on the field. Even MAKING GAME WINNING SAVES. I think we should petition to get her another six points in her season total for this.

Why are you playing with people like that, Nicole Levy? This goal was MEAN, and one of the best we’ve seen this season. There’s a reason it made Sports Center Top 10. I always love typing this – Dah-nuh-nuh, dah-nuh-nuh!

I said it on Twitter and I’ll say it again, Amanda Johansen is SO BACK. She had a phenomenal debut weekend and she continued that success during Week 4. I think Johansen would be near the top of the AU Leaderboard if she had played all season. Exhibit A below:

The szn of #Goalmiller continued with another ridiculous BTB. Kylie has done this so routinely this season, that you might think it’s easy. Well, it’s not. She’s just that good.

The new rules put in place by the AU Athlete’s Council this season have given the fans a chance to see awesome rips from deep. This one by Cortney Fortunato is just another example. As the weeks have gone on, the athletes have become more comfortable taking these, and from deeper range.

I love goalies and I love crossovers between leagues, so this tweet was going to make the list. Dillon Ward is one of the best in the world in sweats, and so is Mira Shane. She was making highlight saves all weekend including this one with the splits.

A fadeaway two-point game winner? Yeah, that’ll do it. That is the trifecta of awesomeness. Shayna should have gotten a couple extra points added to her season total for this one.

Another Michelle Tumolo goal is on the list, but more for the videographer than the goal itself. Alyssia Graves and the rest of AU social crew crushed it on Monday when the rescheduled games were played without tv coverage. They’ve been doing it all season, but this deserved a specific shout out.

Amber McKenzie notched her first goal of the in the rain during a rescheduled game on Monday. Not sure we saw a celebration as big after a goal this season as after this one. This goal had everything.

Week 5 Preview

Week 5 will feature a number of athletes that are no stranger to the wearing the captain’s band. Taylor Cummings (Gold) jumped to the top of the AU Leaderboard after a dominant 424-point weekend. She currently sits 85 points in front of her Week 4 goalie, Caylee Waters (Orange). Kady Glynn (Blue) will also be a captain for the second week in a row after another strong weekend in cage. This will be the first weekend of the season where we will have two goalies holding the captaincy. Rounding our the group is Kylie Ohlmiller (Purple), who will be captain for the third time.

While these four top the leaderboards, there are eight other athletes within 300 points of Cummings at the top spot. It’s is still anyone’s league to win. Week 5’s results will have a direct impact on who is named the inaugural Athletes Unlimited Champion come Sunday.

I will be in attendance for the final day of the season when a champion in crowned. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @adammooreplt for live coverage of Sunday’s games, as well as the championship presentation following the contests.

Athletes Unlimited Leaderboard