Van den Berg Redefines Oregon Lacrosse
by Clare Lochary | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
|
| Ilsa van den Berg, set to become Oregon's all-time
leading scorer this weekend, has plenty of lacrosse left in her.
The daughter of a Dutch father and South African mother, she'll
play for the Dutch national team this summer at the FIL World Cup
in Prague. © Greg Wall |
Ilsa van den Berg always saw herself wearing a green jersey in
college. She just thought it would be at Loyola, not Oregon. When
the Baltimore native took an official visit to Eugene, it was
mostly out of curiosity to visit a state she'd never seen.
"When they came out and saw what Oregon had to offer, her parents
said they saw sort of a glow around her on campus," said Ducks head
coach Jen Larsen.
Van den Berg fell in love with the school's sports marketing
program, and with the rabid college fandom of a state with no
professional sports teams.
"Even if it's a sport they've never heard of, everyone's like,
‘Oh, you're an athlete! That's great!'" said van den
Berg.
Van den Berg has done well by Oregon's fans. The senior has 185
career points, tied with Jen May for the most program history. The
Ducks play at Cal today and at St. Mary's on Sunday, and chances
are van den Berg (27g, 4a) will become Oregon's best scorer ever.
Already the school's career goals leader, she's two points shy of
surpassing Jen May's career mar of 185.
The most extraordinary thing about van den Berg's dominance is
that Oregon uses a motion offense, so the attack isn't rigged to
make her a star. She has to earn every possession and every shot --
she's just exceptionally good at it.
"She just worked really well in our system. It's not an attack
that we designed around Ilsa, and she gets it done," Larsen
said.
Van den Berg has a few things stacked her favor -- namely, that
she's a lefty who is an easy target for her mostly right-handed
teammates to hit. She's also potent in transition, and has
commanded respect from her teammates since she was a freshman.
"In the past three years beforehand, she had a lot of leaders
around her that dished to her.
They just saw her vision and saw what she was capable of creating.
It wasn't going to sit in her hands," said Larsen.
"Now she's handing that off and showing them what a leader looks
like on offense. We're going to see Ilsa's hand in a lot of the
offenses at Oregon in years to come."
For now, both Larsen and van den Berg are concentrating on Cal.
They are tight-lipped about the postseason. The Ducks' program is
only in its fifth season and they have never earned an NCAA bid.
It's hard for MPSF teams to make it into the postseason without an
automatic qualifier -- the only ones who've done it are Denver and
Stanford. Thus far the Ducks have defeated Denver, 11-9, with two
van de Berg goals. (In an ironic twist, Denver midfielder Karen
Morton scored a hat trick in the same game, becoming the Pioneers'
all-time top scorer.) They were thumped by MPSF titan Stanford in
their season opener, 17-5. Van den Berg did not get on the
scoreboard against the Cardinal; it was the first time since 2007
and in 21 games that she'd been blanked.
Regardless of whether or not the Ducks can waddle into the
postseason, van den Berg has plenty of lacrosse ahead of her. The
daughter of a Dutch father and a South African mother, van den Berg
has committed to play for the Dutch national team this summer in
the FIL World Cup in Prague. Her Dutch relatives are slowly
realizing just how good their American cousin is.
"My dad always sends the articles over to them. They've definitely
start to follow up and learn more," said van den Berg. "They'll all
be in Prague."
