City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@jmverlin)
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During the four years she spent emerging as a lacrosse star in Chapel Hill (N.C.), Alyssa Long couldn’t escape basketball.

The Springfield (Delco.) graduate found lacrosse to be the vessel that got her to college athletics, but basketball was her first love. It was hard to argue against where lacrosse took her, Long winning a state title in high school then a national title during a career at the University of North Carolina, but there was always a pull back to basketball.

The now-graduate student at Immaculata took the long way back, but she’s able to close out her athletic career playing one last season in the sport she couldn’t ever get away from.

“It’s been amazing, it really has been the greatest experience, just a dream come true,” Long told CoBL earlier this month. “It’s just fun to be running around again and competing. I really was not ready to be working with a group of girls, going for a championship and sharing a common goal every day.”

Statistically, Long’s numbers aren’t eye-popping but the fifth-year has played an integral role for the 20-3 Mighty Macs. Immaculata will host an AEC tournament game against Marywood on Wednesday as the top seed, the Mighty Macs having posted their first 20-win season since the legendary 1976-77 team coached by Cathy Rush. 

It’s not like Long gave up hoops completely the last four years, but there’s a significant difference between playing a lot of pick-up and playing Division III basketball. The fifth-year has been patient with herself and she’s got no problem with the role the Mighty Macs use her in as a sparkplug off the bench.

Long made one start this season – on the team’s Senior Night – but has otherwise been a mainstay off the bench. Normally, she’ll check in about midway through the first quarter to spell starting point guard Abbey Boyer for a few minutes, then her shifts will vary as the game goes on.

“I was fortunate in high school to play with three 1,000-point scorers so I never had to be a scorer, that was never my role,” Long said. “I played defense, I controlled the offense and got the ball into the hands of people who were playmakers. I figured I could bring some defensive intensity, some competitive fire and some leadership, it’s my fifth year of college athletics, so I figured I could bring whatever I could into this team.

“I found my way into the rotation, so it’s been a great experience, but I just came in wanting to enjoy my last year of college athletics.

Immaculata coach Brittany Whalen wasn’t expecting to land a Division I athlete - even if it was in another sport - out of the transfer portal. Adding people who know how to win, as Long surely does, tends to improve a program and about the only negative Whalen sees is that she only gets Long for one year.

“I got her email and initially was a little taken aback, like why does a former Division I lacrosse athlete want to play for my program, but I jumped on it right away,” Whalen said. “Great kid, great personality and she talked about how she just wanted to continue to be a part of something and be with a team that wants to win, I think she was missing that after graduating from Carolina.

“The experience and the leadership she’s brought to our program alone, I wish we had her longer.”

Springfield Delco grad Alyssa Long was a state champion lacrosse player in high school, following that sport to national powerhouse North Carolina. (Photo courtesy UNC Athletics)

Kyle Long, two years older than Alyssa, routinely set a path his sister followed. The elder Long played football and basketball but gravitated to lacrosse, where he quickly became a dominant player with a state power Cougars program and parlayed it to a college career at Maryland.

Naturally, Alyssa ended up following Kyle’s lead and picked up a lacrosse stick. She couldn’t leave basketball behind, starting all four years at point guard for Springfield, but as a smaller player at 5-foot-4 (at leas, that’s what the Immaculata roster says; Alyssa laughed and said she’s closer to 5-foot-2) the hoop dreams were limited.

However, the same things that made her effective on the hardwood like her speed, vision, tenacity and discipline translated easily to lacrosse. 

“I watched my brother go through the recruiting process and lacrosse was his ticket into competing for a national championship at the highest level and that’s how I’m wired and that’s what I wanted to do,” Long said. “I wanted to become one of the best, be on the best team and have a chance to win a national championship.

“Lacrosse is more tailored to a small, gritty kid like me. I couldn’t have loved my four years at Carolina any more.”

Kyle, who also won a state title at Springfield (Delco.) and a national title with the Terrapins, is back home working in the school district and coaching football and lacrosse. He followed his mother and father into education and after graduating from the University of Maryland in 2022, decided to pursue his Masters at Immaculata.

So in much the same way he’d led his sister to lacrosse, Kyle led the way for Alyssa to wind up at Immaculata two years later. Fittingly, in the same way she couldn’t escape basketball at North Carolina, she couldn’t escape UNC at Immaculata with the university prominently using “Carolina Blue” as one of its school colors.

Alyssa also had the same goal of becoming a teacher like her brother and her parents Frank and Cathy, so while working toward her Master’s of Education, she will be helping out on the sidelines with Springfield Delco lacrosse this spring.

“My dad is a retired third grade teacher, my mom is a middle school gym teacher, my brother is a seventh grade social studies teacher,” Long said. “I loved that my parents were so present in my life, we had all summer together, they never missed a game because we were on the same schedule. 

“My mom refs field hockey and lacrosse, she coaches field hockey. My dad coaches basketball and my brother coaches football and lacrosse. Coming here just allowed me to have the best opportunity to go on and teach, coach and be present in my family’s lives.”

Alyssa Long (13) has played all 23 games for Immaculata this season, providing plenty of assists, defense and grit off the bench in her first season of college basketball. (CoBL Photo/Josh Verlin)

Pick a college team anywhere in the country, scroll through its roster and there’s a sure bet that numerous mutli-sport high school athletes will appear. Whalen certainly fits that bill, the Mighty Macs head coach even carrying it to college where she played softball and basketball at Immaculata.

Current freshman Carly Coleman has the same distinction, she started all fall for the soccer team and now does the same indoors. Long wouldn’t be playing two sports for Immaculata, but she had a unique blend of experience and competitive fire that just her presence would elevate the team.

“She’s such a gamer, she loves competition through and through, the hustle and heart she demonstrates is unmatched,” Whalen said. “Bringing that grit and that energy from her time at UNC to Immaculata, she stepped into her role and she gets it done on the floor. She’s a great leader for our team.

“Her athleticism alone, she was right into it. We always talk about our defense sparks our offensive game, so she utilizes that and steps into that role.”

Long never had delusions she could be a two-sport Division I athlete. What she could do however, was find other ways to keep basketball in her life. She’d play one-on-one with her freshman year roommate against anyone willing at the outdoors near her underclassmen dorm room, trips to the rec center for pick-up games were regular and Long even wrangled her way onto the intramural squad belonging to UNC’s national powerhouse women’s soccer team.

A chat with one of the equipment managers at UNC about basketball somehow got back to Tar Heels women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart. While she couldn’t give Long a roster spot but she did gift the lacrosse standout an officially branded UNC basketball that got put to good use, long since wearing out its lifespan.

“It was our outlet, it was always fun, I always tried to stay involved with basketball,” Long said.

What she went to Chapel Hill to do though was win lacrosse games. UNC coach Jenny Levy owns the program, she started it and has been the Tar Heels’ sole coach the last 30 years and built it into a winner.

Long found ways to contribute right away, playing nine games as a freshman and 13 the next year as UNC went undefeated and won the national title in 2022. That season was memorable for a whole manner of reasons but mostly for the way it ended.

While Alyssa and the Tar Heels were storming their way toward the ultimate goal, a few hours north, now-senior Kyle and his Terrapins were doing the same. The Long siblings had both experienced heartbreak the year before, Alyssa and UNC losing in the national final and Kyle and Maryland going down in the final four.

As their respective teams rolled, sister and brother started thinking about a dream ending.

“He’s my best friend. We talked all the time and when you know someone living such a similar life, they get it, what you’re going through and how hard it can be some days,” Long said. “They know how non-glorious the other side of it is sometimes. We talked to get through tough days, whatever it was but that became a special year and a special run.”

Alyssa Long reached the pinnacle of her sport in college, helping UNC win an NCAA title in 2022 during her sophomore season. The same weekend, her older brother Kyle won an NCAA lacrosse title as a senior at Maryland, (Photo courtesy UNC Athletics)

For most anyone else, it would have stayed just that: a dream. For the Longs, it became the best weekend of their lives.

No. 1 seed UNC defeated No. 3 Boston College 12-11 in an all-time classic final on May 29, 2022 to finish the year 22-0. While Alyssa didn’t play in the final, she did help UNC get there two days earlier in a 15-14 semifinal win over Northwestern.

Amidst the celebration and jubilation of reaching the pinnacle of her sport, Alyssa and her parents had a plane to catch. Two days later and with a clump of net cut from the goal secured in the strap of her national championship hat, Alyssa then watched Kyle and Maryland defeat Cornell 9-7 as they finished 18-0 and national champions.

Kyle Long made a beeline for his family in the stands where he, his parents and his sister shared a long embrace.

“I don’t know if there will be a better feeling than having him jump into the stands with me and my parents after I’d just won,” Long said. “I had my national championship hat on with the Carolina logo, he had his hat on with the Maryland logo.

“It was just the four of us that had made the sacrifices, the triumphs, the failures, everything like that, it was all for those 48 hours. I don’t know, maybe like a wedding will top it someday but that was really, really special.”

Alyssa, who aside from the UNC logo on her hat had otherwise traded in Carolina blue for Maryland red for a day, recalled the total wave of emotion as she and her brother shared a moment few others could lay claim to. A picture of the two of them, Kyle having since donned his own hat with his clipping of net stuffed in the fastener on the back, remains a treasured memento.

“We were 40-0 combined, I was 22-0 and he was 18-0,” Long said. “Neither of us lost a game. It’s historic, it’s impressive, sometimes we think back on it and it’s just ‘wow, we really did that.’”

As Kyle started at Immaculata in his pursuit of teaching, Alyssa’s career bloomed. As a junior, Long rose to the occasion with a breakout year that included 19 goals and 34 draw controls for a 16-5 UNC squad that made the national quarterfinals, earning third team All-American honors.

Her senior year was equally impressive, Long going for a career high 32 tallies for a Tar Heels roster that was hit hard by injury and had an uncharacteristic first round NCAA tournament exit.

Long just saw it as filling the role her team most needed her to.

“It made me mature faster, I had such great leaders ahead of me at Carolina that paved the way but when you’re in that spotlight and the kids look to you for an answer, look to you to explain a drill or look to you on the field because they need a goal, you take pride in it,” Long said. “A lot fell on my shoulders my senior year because of the injuries, I think we were down about eight starters by the end of it, so I had to step up.

“It was a privilege, they say ‘pressure is privilege,’ and I took that on but I don’t take that on without the culture of support we built on relying on the person on your right and on your left.”

Alyssa Long (10) was a third team All-American as a junior at UNC. As a senior, she served as team captain and scored a career-high 32 goals leading an injury-riddled roster back to the NCAA tournament. (Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics)

Long figured she was done last spring when UNC’s season came to an abrupt end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. She knew she also wanted to pursue her Masters and get into teaching once she had it.

She remembered Kyle had spoken well of Immaculata’s program and once again, she followed her brother’s lead, enrolling soon after her senior season ended. Four years as a Division I student-athlete are taxing and Long took some deserved time off last summer but the more she thought about it, the more the idea of being just a grad student didn’t sit right.

While Immaculata has a women’s lacrosse program, that wouldn’t have felt right. But there was always basketball.

“We had a tougher year, it was the earliest departure I’d had in my career at North Carolina, so I took seven or eight weeks then I just thought ‘I’m going to regret it if I don’t do this,’” Long said. “I sent Britt an email, we ended up talking on Facetime a couple days later and got working on the NCAA compliance and when it went through, it just felt perfect.”

Division III rules are much different than Division I, so there was only so much time Whalen and her staff could have with the team during the summer. Still, she got Long connected with some of her returning players who were in charge of organizing workouts and pick-up games to help the guard reacclimate.

Stepping back on a court with more than bragging rights or an intramural trophy at stake was an adjustment but Long fell right back in love with competitive basketball again.

“My first time playing pick-up with them in August, it was like ‘uh oh,’ it’d definitely been a while,” Long said. “It was just a process of shaking rust off, getting the ball in your hands and getting better every day since August and September helped and the girls have been nothing but welcoming and supportive.”

UNC lacrosse is off to a 4-0 start this season, Long cheering very loudly for them from afar with her connections to the team still extremely strong. She’s planning to get back to Chapel Hill later this spring to watch a game and Long figures that’s probably when it’ll truly set in that her lacrosse days are over.

Having basketball has certainly helped delay that feeling. Two meetings against Neumann University were also a reunion of sorts, Long getting to go against Knights assistant Kacy McNichol, one of the coaches who helped instill such a love of the game in her that she felt compelled to come back to it as her final act as a college athlete.

“I played for the Comets when I was little, I played for Kacy and Ky McNichol (also her high school coach at Springfield Delco), they were my Comets coaches, I didn’t pick up lacrosse until I was in middle school,” Long said. “Basketball was always my first love, it’s the sport I hold closest to my heart. 

“My dad coaches at Springfield, I’ve always been around basketball, it was my favorite so I felt like it was something I owed to my little self to do.”

It would have been easy for the team’s established players to look at their new addition with a little trepidation. She hadn’t played competitively in four years and she was likely going to take minutes, which are always a hard commodity to get at the college level.

Instead, the Mighty Macs brought Long right in. She and Boyer, a senior and a Spring-Ford graduate, hit it off quickly and also went right at each other in practice, Long adding she feels a little bit of pride every time Boyer torches a defender because it's rooted in them pushing each other every day.

Long has won at every level and she and Immaculata find themselves in great position to win a championship this weekend.

“I don’t know what expectations I had, but it’s exceeded and surpassed everything I ever could have imagined,” Long said. “The girls, the relationships, I didn’t expect to find more best friends or more memories when I got here.

“They welcomed me, invited me everywhere with them from the moment I stepped in on moving day. I will never forget this year, it’s been one of the most impactful years of my life and I can’t wait to keep it going.”

Alyssa Long (10) has won at every stop: a district title in basketball along with district and state titles in lacrosse during high school at Springfield Delco, a national championship in college at North Carolina. The fifth-year is hoping to help Immaculata win an Atlantic East Conference championship this week. (Photo courtesy UNC Athletics)

Mighty Macs chasing AEC title

Immaculata, which had a bye in the first round of the Atlantic East Conference tournament Monday, has been on a tear since early December.

Whalen’s group enters the league playoffs on a 13-game win streak, Immaculata’s last loss coming on Dec. 7 at Arcadia and even that was only by three points. They’ve turned Alumnae Hall into a fortress, the Mighty Macs posting a 12-0 home record and sweeping the AEC regular season at 10-0.

It’s been a veteran group with a heavy local influence leading the way.

“I think they realized it’s not all about points and who’s scoring,” Whalen said. “We have so many people on the team this year and a deeper bench that can produce, they understand there are so many other things they can do on the floor.”

Senior Reese Mullins, a product of Hockessin, DE by way of the Tower Hill School, leads the team at 15.7 ppg and is one of four players averaging double digits offensively. The other three all have ties to the area, with Boyer (10.4 ppg), fifth year Great Valley grad Tessa Liberatoscioli (10.3 ppg) and Coleman (10.3 ppg), the freshman from Cardinal O’Hara rounding out the top four.

Coleman, who started 16 of 19 matches in the fall and scored four goals playing soccer, also leads Immaculata with 8.7 rebounds per game. She, Cassidy, Boyer and Liberatoscioli have all earned multiple AEC honors, either as Player of the Week, Defensive Player of the Week or to the weekly honor roll, this season.

“It’s tough, we say the more we win the bigger the target is on our back,” Whalen said. “We tell the girls every day at practice, ‘you need to remain uncomfortable,’ that’s the mindset we have to go in every day at practice and every single game. The moment we are content in what we’re doing, that’s when other teams catch up to us.”

Olivia Ettore has been a consistent producer in the starting five all season at 7.1 ppg while Riley Cassidy, an Ocean City NJ native who played locally at Episcopal Academy, has provided instant offense off the bench at 7.7 ppg. Spring-Ford grad Meg Robbins joins Cassidy and Long as the three reserves to have played in all 23 games.

“You can tell when someone gets an assist on a big score down the other end, they’re just genuinely excited for one another,” Whalen said. “That camaraderie is so exciting to see.”

While Whalen, a 2015 Immaculata graduate, will pass off credit for this season’s success to her players, both the veterans and the newcomers, she’s had a pretty significant impact as well. Her first season ended 15-11 and in the AEC semifinals and this group is prepared to take a step beyond that.

“Having a coach, in my experience, that cares about us as people – she got a couch put in her office so we can just hang out with her in there – makes such a difference,” Long said. “She’s a culture person. She’s family first, she’s the first person you go to when you have a bad day. She made it really clear when I was on the call with her that she preached a family culture, a togetherness, an all-in kind of ‘I’ve got your back’ brand of basketball and I was sold on that.”

Should the Mighty Macs win Wednesday, they would host the winner of the other semifinal between No. 2 Marymount and No. 3 Neumann on Saturday at Alumnae Hall.