‘Building a house’: Inside Central Michigan women’s lacrosse’s rapid rise to NCAA Tournament contender

After an assistant coach from the Central Michigan women’s lacrosse program approached Jillian Baldwin in 2016 during a summer tournament at McDonogh, the Bel Air resident and then-rising C. Milton Wright junior hit the internet.

“I definitely had to do some research,” she said. “I had obviously heard of Michigan State and the University of Michigan, but I wasn’t too familiar with Central. So I definitely had to look into the program.”

Baldwin and her teammates are beginning to put the Chippewas on the lacrosse map. In just seven years since its inaugural NCAA Division I season in 2016, Central Michigan will make its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament when it faces No. 4 seed Northwestern on Friday at 5 p.m. at the Wildcats’ Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium in Evanston, Illinois.

The Chippewas earned a berth in the 29-team field after walloping Robert Morris, 20-10, in Saturday’s Mid-American Conference tournament final. Friday’s debut in the NCAA postseason looms as a moment of inspiration for coach Sara Tisdale and her players.

“We have absolutely nothing to lose,” Tisdale said. “This is our first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. This team is unknown to so many people in the country, and we have everything to gain and nothing to lose. I’d like to be in that spot any day.

“When you think about Northwestern, they’ve had so many more opportunities than we’ve had to play on the national stage, and that’s OK. But for us, we’re still growing, and we’re playing our very best lacrosse right now, and we’re leveling up every single day.”

The journey from neophyte program to NCAA qualifier took root in 2014 when the university hired Tisdale, a 2006 graduate with a bachelor’s in education, to launch the program. Tisdale, who played lacrosse in high school and at Central Michigan for a club team, had coached the club team at Michigan State and the Division III program at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where she guided the Vikings to the Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference regular-season and tournament crowns and the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

“I think we’ve done this the right way,” said Tisdale, who refers to her first squad as Team 1, her second Team 2, and so on. “We have amazing people that are a part of our program, great families, and a university that believes in the mission of athletics as part of its overall vision. This is absolutely where we wanted to be.”

Baldwin, who was considering Fresno State, said Central Michigan’s brief history did not scare her away.

“I thought, ‘You can make a big impact,’” she said. “As Coach likes to say, you’re building a house over the years. Those teams have really built the foundation for us, and now we’re kind of building the floors to our house. So I think the fact that I was able to build the foundation of that house was something that was cool for me.”

In 2018, the Chippewas compiled a program-record six-game winning streak and captured the Southern Conference regular-season championship. After the 2019 squad set school records for goals, draw controls and saves, the 2020 team seemed poised to enjoy greater success.

But the coronavirus pandemic shut down that season. Still, that development had a unifying effect on what is known as Team 5.

“Team 5 was a really special team, and I do think that we could have made it to the end there,” said Brennan Paddy, a senior midfielder from Centreville. “But we solidified our love for each other and how much we wanted to play and be here, and that showed the second that Coach Tisdale told us that our year was coming to an end really early. And then we came back, and every day we said that we wanted to stay here and do it together.”

After a second-place finish in the Mid-American Conference in 2021, Central Michigan overcame a 0-2 start with three straight victories. Even a 17-13 setback to Big Ten fixture Michigan on March 6, during which the No. 8 Wolverines led 11-2 late in the second quarter, injected the players and coaches with a sense of optimism.

“After halftime, we kind of just put it out there,” Baldwin said. “I think we were coming out and thinking, ‘We don’t want this game to end with this nine-goal [deficit].’ We knew we had the potential to do better.”

This spring, the Chippewas tied Robert Morris and Youngstown State for the regular-season title before thrashing the Colonials for the tournament championship. They have been buoyed by junior midfielder and MAC Offensive Player of the Year Audrey Whiteside (team-high 35 assists, 75 points and 63 draw controls), a pair of first-team selections in senior attacker Courtney Burke (27 goals and 19 assists) and Baldwin (25 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers), and two second-team picks in senior midfielder Maggie Diebold (a team-best 64 goals) and Paddy (25 goals, 10 assists and 40 draw controls).

Encouragement is a point of emphasis for Tisdale. After she found a UC Berkeley professor of psychology who posited a link between the amount of personal contact in the form of high-fives, fist pounds and chest bumps among NBA players and their teams’ on-court success, the Chippewas have increased their high-five usage.

“I’m doing it during practice, after every drill, and in the games,” Paddy said. “You just go up to anybody and tell them they did a good job or that you’ve got their back.”

Now Central Michigan is enjoying the fruits of its labor, relishing the moment when its name flashed on the TV screen after ESPNU revealed the women’s bracket.

Tisdale said she thinks her current group of players is equipped to handle the momentous occasion.

“I’m way too competitive not to tell you that I would have loved to have this earlier in my career,” she said. “Even if we had the skill — which I do believe we had over the last few years — I don’t think we’ve had the mentality required to compete at this level. They’ve showed that throughout the year when we played Michigan, Cincinnati, Robert Morris. So I think timing is everything. We continue to know that things will play out, and we continue to believe in that process and do the small pieces right.”

The Chippewas (12-7) figure to be prohibitive underdogs against a Northwestern team (13-4) that advanced to last year’s Final Four, finished second in the Big Ten regular-season standings and might already be eyeing Sunday’s second-round game against either Notre Dame (9-9) or Michigan (10-6). But Baldwin said she and her teammates are not content with simply showing up.

“Obviously, we’re glad we’re MAC champs, and we’ve crossed that off our list,” she said. “But we’re definitely not done. We’re not looking just to make this appearance and then be done. We want to make a name for Central Michigan.”

Added Tisdale: “I can tell you that our bags are packed for Sunday, and we’re ready to dance.”