Mercy senior Jill Smith aims to continue lacrosse success in college at Michigan

When Jill Smith first took the lacrosse field in fifth grade, she was a natural. 

She played every sport under the sun — softball, soccer and basketball — when she was younger. And with her athleticism and physicality in those sports, she was seen as a perfect fit for the newly-formed Triumph Lacrosse club team. 

Smith arrived at her first practice, never having touched a lacrosse stick before, but showed off that same physicality and athleticism she put into the other sports. Club manager Chris Merucci was impressed, pitting her against competitors in eighth grade and even in high school. 

“He was asking where I played before and I was telling him I never played,” Smith said. “Apparently I just had natural talent, raw talent at the beginning.” 

In her years with the team Merucci placed Smith higher and higher in terms of talent that had come through the club, realizing what set her apart.

“She is not accustomed to losing, not OK with losing,” Merucci said. “She’s a fierce competitor from the day I met her. 

“Yes she’s fast, yes she’s strong. Is she the fastest or the strongest on every field? No, but what separates her is an intense tenacity, a drive and passion to win and be the best.” Playing lacrosse — an East Coast dominated sport — in a midwestern state at both the club and in three years high school level at Mercy, Smith, a senior, focused her determination on making a name for herself in a way that not many Michigan lacrosse players have in the past. That drive led to a commitment to play at the University of Michigan. 

When playing for Triumph, along with the Lakeshore Lacrosse club in Chicago, Smith was named to the Under Armour All-American Midwest team along with a National Lacrosse Classic All-American and All-Star team selection. 

Smith also dominated for the Marlins, setting 16 state records as a freshman and 12 as a sophomore, including the most points in a single game — 15 on 12 goals and three assists. She earned All-Americans in each of her two full seasons at Mercy, but had her junior season cut short due to COVID-19. 

No matter what she did, Smith was told from Day 1 that East Coast lacrosse players would have better stick skills, come into colleges much more developed based on the level of the game in the area. 

This forced her to use her determination, to work harder than those other girls, something Merucci saw her prove each time she took the field. 

“We have to put them out there on the stage and say ‘Yes. It’s not a zip code thing. It’s an athlete thing and a DNA thing and a training thing,’” Merucci said. “‘This girl can play.’” 

On the 2021 roster, the Wolverines have one Michigan resident on their roster: Maggie Kane, a senior who graduated from Grand Rapids Catholic Central in 2017. To Smith, Kane was the underdog, having to prove herself to become one of the top players on the roster. 

Merucci sees deems Smith as "The next Maggie Kane" with the position she is in, having worked and trained with her over the summer. But it's a position the Mercy senior never thought she would be in. 

“If you asked me when I was in fifth grade if I would ever play lacrosse at one of the top lacrosse schools in the country and academic schools, I would laugh because lacrosse, all the east coast players are the ones who play in college,” Smith said. 

“D1 schools usually overlook you because you are from the Midwest, so that’s why you really have to show you can play against the east coast teams and beat them out.” 

After coming into high school with aspirations of playing collegiate lacrosse on the East Coast, Smith turned her focus more on her home state, watching as head coach Hannah Nielson and the Michigan women’s lacrosse team made it to the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament. 

Attending camps in Ann Arbor before she was in high school, Michigan proved to be a perfect fit for Smith, with hopes to continue what Kane had done in the program in her four years. 

With one more season at Mercy ahead of her, Smith doesn’t have to worry about recruiting or picking a college. But she is still determined. 

She may be from the Midwest, but Smith aims to be taken seriously in the lacrosse world. 

“I just want to prove to them that Michigan players can do just as well as East Coast,” Smith said. “No matter where you are from, there is so much potential and so many different people. 

“I kind of just want to show them what Michigan lacrosse is about, what we can do.”