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Joe Spallina is difficult to gain admiration from. He’s witnessed plenty of elite lacrosse players throughout his 16-year coaching career, so he isn’t the type of person to give someone their flowers before they deserve them.

Yet, for his daughter Alexa, a junior in high school, he made an exception.

“She could play college lacrosse right now,” Joe said. “She’s a smart catch. She understands the game better than a lot of coaches.”

Alexa, Inside Lacrosse’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2025, committed to play for Syracuse on Sept. 21, 2023. While she has two more high school seasons before moving upstate from Long Island, Alexa will join her brothers Joey, Jake and Brett — who are on SU’s men’s team — playing for the Orange in 2026.

Joe said Alexa’s game is very similar to Joey’s, Inside Lacrosse’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2022. As a freshman in 2023, Joey led the Orange in goals (36) and assists (32). As a sophomore, his dominance has continued, leading Syracuse in goals (24) and assists (35) 10 games into its season. When Alexa arrives on campus, she’s determined to make a Joey-like impact on the women’s team.

“I think I’m the same type of player as Joey, and I’m going to work for it,” Alexa said. “I want to start all four years and I think I’m willing to work for it and I think I’m willing to produce what ‘Cuse needs.”

Alexa Spallina (second to left) poses with her family at the JMA Wireless Dome after Stony Brook, coached by her father Joe (bottom), defeated Syracuse 13-12 in overtime on March 5, 2024. Aidan Groeling | Staff Photographer

Hard work is something Alexa has valued throughout her life. In elementary school, she began training with her brothers and played lacrosse against boys. As a fifth grader, while Joey was in eighth and Jake and Brett were in seventh grade, she played in a box lacrosse tournament with her brothers. Alexa rapidly developed her skills, honing in on her stick handle and shooting.

“A lot of brothers wouldn’t want their sisters to be running around with a bunch of their friends,” Alexa said. “I think there was a difference though. My brothers wanted me out there.”

As box lacrosse is known for its physicality, Alexa was laid out by an opposing player in one game. Even though her brothers instantly turned protective, coming to Alexa’s defense, physicality became a part of lacrosse she embraced.

“I’d rather someone cross-check me across the neck than not hit me at all,” Alexa said.

Around the same time, in addition to playing with her brothers, Alexa began practicing with Stony Brook, where Joe has served as the head women’s lacrosse coach since 2012. Despite not even being a teenager while facing high-end Division I competition for the first time, Joe pushed Alexa to her highest limits, expecting her to score one-on-one goals in drills.

From these experiences, Alexa’s poise quickly advanced, needing to mature playing against intensified competition. But it also developed her on-field skills and desire to improve — something she always expects from her teammates.

“She expects everybody to be wired the same way she is,” Joe said. “She’s got a little bit of that Kobe (Bryant) in her where there’s no such thing as an off day. Everybody’s gotta be working their ass off and doing everything possible to win.”

Alexa leads by example off the field, which is what’s elevated her to become the best player in her class. Once her brothers started driving, the four siblings began training at 5 a.m. every day.

“We go to the gym before school because we know that everyone’s still sleeping,” Alexa said.

But it didn’t stop there.

Pretty soon fall is gonna ask the question “what have you done all summer” pic.twitter.com/2aRWZkb33i

— Alexa Spallina (@SpallinaAlexa) August 30, 2023

After school ended, if the siblings didn’t have team practice, they worked on speed, strength and agility training. Then, it was time for stick work. Whether that was participating in a clinic, shooting or going to Stony Brook, the work continued — every day.

When Alexa was in middle school, she and Joey started training with Jack Kensil, the head of performance for and founder of 2 Wolves Performance. When Kensil trains siblings, he joked that he often points out he’s not their babysitter. With the Spallinas, that was never a problem, especially with Alexa.

“It’s very evident when you have a player that’s willing to go the furthest lengths to get where they want to be,” Kensil said. “That was evident early on. Any group that she’s in, everybody has to elevate their game and their intensity.”

Beyond training with her brothers, Alexa also practices with her Long Island Yellow Jackets teammates — the club team she has played with since third grade. Among the club’s class of 2025 players, 60 are committed to playing in college. Because of its deep roster, Alexa plays a quarterback-like role, feeding her teammates from X — a similar role to Joey’s at Syracuse.

“I know when to cut and she is able to make perfect passes for us to finish … She gets everyone to be successful,” said Aubrie Eisfeld, Alexa’s club teammate since third grade who is also committed to SU in 2025.

Growing up, Joey instilled in Alexa that assists should be worth two points, not one. With a heavy emphasis on passing, Alexa said she sees the game differently and developed a unique IQ.

Under Joey’s guidance, she learned how to pass players open. Instead of waiting for players to become free, Alexa’s field vision allows her to hit players who have yet to beat their defenders.

“The great ones are able to do different things and raise the level of the players around them,” Joe said. “And that’s why Alexa, while being highly touted, being the No. 1 recruit, I think she’s about as low risk as a kid as I’ve ever coached coming out of high school just because she can do so many different things.”

Beyond elite facilitating, Alexa takes pride in her balance as a player, holding a near 1:1 goal-to-assist ratio. At Mount Sinai High School — the alma mater of SU stars Meaghan and Emma Tyrrell — Alexa has played varsity since seventh grade and is a two-time All Suffolk County recipient.

Cindy Zhang | Digital Design Director

As a middle schooler and underclassman, she quickly became a key part of the team’s attack. In the county semifinals last year, where Mount Sinai was a No. 7 seed, it needed to mount a comeback.

Head coach Shayna Pirreca said that once it came to crunch time, the team needed to get the ball to Alexa. It’s a scenario she always wants to thrive in. She did.

Alexa scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals in the final minutes of the game, lifting Mount Sinai to the championship game. Sophomores are rarely tasked with leading a heroic win, but Alexa wasn’t like anyone else in her class.

“I don’t think anything was handed to her. She worked for everything,” Pirreca said. “All the accolades, everything that she got, she 100% deserved. There was a lot of hard work and dedication that went into that.”

When the class of 2025 recruiting window opened on Sept. 1, 2023, Alexa was in a unique position. Not because she was the No. 1 recruit in her class but because of the connections she had to Syracuse and Stony Brook.

“I think no one had to experience (recruiting) the way I had to experience it,” Alexa said.

But once her brothers held up a No. 22 jersey — Joey’s number and a historic number within the men’s program — and asked her to join them at Syracuse, Alexa said she was convinced. Beyond her brothers’ influence, Alexa said she’s confident SU head coach Kayla Treanor and her coaching staff can bring her to the next level.

While Alexa’s jump from high school to college is still a couple of years away, she’s already positioned herself to flawlessly transition. It’s not just because she’s a generational player. She already trains like a collegiate athlete and pushes herself to unprecedented levels. For Alexa, it’ll be business as usual.

“With Alexa, it’s her mindset and her work ethic that really sets her apart,” Pirreca said. “She’s a true lax rat.”

Published on March 21, 2024 at 12:15 am

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon