Sports
Two Seniors at Friends To Play Division I Women’s Lacrosse
Ella Cooper to play at Virginia and Emma Sissman will play at Davidson.
Two Friends School students who have excelled in athletics and academics have signed letters of intent to play Division I college women’s lacrosse.
Ella Cooper, a Cockeysville resident who had a verbal agreement in place before her junior year, formalized her plans to attend the University of Virginia. Emma Sissman, who lives in Guilford, will enroll at Davidson College in North Carolina.
“Ella is a dedicated student-athlete with tremendous lacrosse abilities,” said Mandy Hudson, her lacrosse coach at Friends. “She has a knack for reaching inside herself and her team and finding a way to finish a play.”
Cooper shattered the girls lacrosse scoring record at Friends in her junior year, amassing 98 goals and 40 assists.
Hudson said Sissman is unselfish and a hard worker.
“Emma is a skilled student-athlete with tremendous field presence and passion for competition,” Hudson said. “She leads her team by playing 100 percent from endline to endline.”
Nick Gill, who coached the two in girls soccer, said they will be sorely missed.
“Ella helped spark an offense that scored over 50 goals while Emma anchored our defense that posted seven shutouts,” Gill said of the just-concluded season. “I am thrilled to see them move on to play Division I lacrosse. They will certainly be tremendous assets to their respective schools.”
It is the fulfillment of plans that reach back to middle school for the two students, who have been best friends since first grade.
“I definitely wanted a school that was both academically strong and athletically strong,” said Sissman of her commitment to play at Davidson. “It is a good fit for me because it is on the smaller side which I wanted, but it also has a Division I program.”
Cooper was sold on UVA after visiting the school during the summer after her sophomore year.
“It was everything that I could have hoped for in a school,” she said. “They had the athletics that I wanted and they had the academics that I wanted. Academics are really important to me as well—that’s probably the most important thing because you don’t have professional lacrosse so you want to go somewhere where you can go far academically.”
While neither student has decided on an academic focus for college, both said they are interested in math and sciences.
Although they will play the same sport at the same college division level, it is doubtful the two will meet competitively, since Davidson plays in a different conference than Virginia.
Yet if the fates dictate that they meet in a playoff environment, friendships will be placed on a side burner as an attacking Cooper would meet a strong midfield defensive presence in Sissman.