The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Fresh off a record year, Nixon eyes new heights
Izzy Nixon was poised and primed to produce a historic season inside the draw circle for the Yale University women’s lacrosse team this past spring.
“Prior to the season, I walked into coach’s office, sat down and discussed a goal I had of breaking the draw control record for the season and taking it back for the school,” said Nixon, a Greenwich resident.
Always quick on the draw, Nixon did indeed, make history.
A 2015 Greenwich Academy graduate, Nixon broke the Ivy League record for draw controls in a single season when she won her 109th draw in Yale’s game against Columbia on April 7. Nixon, a 5-foot-9, 21-yearold attack, proceeded to register 130 draw controls during her junior season for the Bulldogs, 22 more than the previous Ivy League record-holder.
“That was definitely a huge moment, I remember looking at coach (Erica LaGow) on the sideline when I did it toward the end of the Columbia game.” Nixon said. “We didn’t come out on top in the game, so it was definitely tough to get the record during that game. But getting that record was a team effort. It came from our
team putting in the work during the fall season.”
Nixon finished the season ranked third among NCAA Division I players with an average of 8.67 draw controls per game and fourth in total draw controls. Kathryn Giroux of Dartmouth eclipsed Nixon’s Ivy League mark winning 16 draws in her team’s final game of the season last month, giving her 133. However, Giroux played in 16 games, one more than Nixon.
Besides giving Yale the possession advantage on its opponents by consistently winning draws, Nixon was a scoring threat on the squad for the second straight season. She recorded 18 goals (fourth most on the team) and added seven assists for 25 points. The first three seasons of her career has seen her compile 50 goals, 23 assists and 227 draw controls.
Following the 2018 season, Nixon received Second Team All-Northeast Region honors by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association and was an All-Ivy League Second Team selection.
While at Greenwich Academy, where she twice earned All-America First Team accolades and was an All-NEPSAC and All-FAA team selection, Nixon was up and down the field throughout each game as a midfielder. She began her collegiate career at midfield, but was soon switched to attack.
“I was a midfielder all throughout high school. I never wanted to miss a second of the game or miss a play,” said Nixon, who tallied a program-record 421 career draw controls while at GA. “Moving me to attack in college was one of the best decisions. I get to focus on playing one end of the field and I’ve focused on honing the skills needed to play attack. I’ve gotten to know the attacking unit really well.”
Nixon especially thrives near or behind the crease, close to the goal.
“Scoring goals definitely gives you a rush,” Nixon said. “It’s a unique feeling that I’m going to miss when I’m done playing.”
She’ll also greatly miss taking the draws for her team at the center of the field.
“Getting a draw control is an exhilarating feeling and I take it pretty personal,” Nixon said. “It is different from scoring a goal. It’s almost like an indirect win for the team because it gives the team possession and provides the team with of sense of confidence.”
Plenty goes into being successful at the faceoff circle.
“It is the most particular part of the women’s game,” Nixon noted. “Seventy percent of the draw involves reading your competitor and reading your teammates. If I am sending the ball to myself on the draw, my teammates will help box out to help set me up to self draw. If I am sending the ball to them, I have to know where they are set up and it’s important for us to communicate. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re able to read each other’s eyes and we have little signals, like a nod of the head.”
One of Yale’s season-long strengths was its effectiveness at the draw circle.
“We have a lot of talented draw takers on our team, but what was different this year is we spent a lot of time watching more film on draw controls,” said Nixon, who also emphasized the role wrist and leg strength
plays in taking draws. “Our assistant coach Molly Hulseman was an incredible mentor for me. She had insight into what are competitors were doing and we used that to our advantage.”
A captain while she was at Greenwich Academy, Nixon will also captain Yale in 2019. Yale finished 2018 with a record of 7-8 and missed qualifying for the Ivy League Tournament by one game. Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth finished atop the league standings and all three squads should be strong again next season.
“The Ivy League is incredibly competitive in lacrosse. There are always a number of top-10 teams in the league,” Nixon said. “But as daunting as it may seem, we love the competition. We have gotten better and better each year from being in this league. Looking ahead to next season, we are welcoming a large group of freshmen, who are going to continue to help elevate our game. Coach (LaGow) is doing a lot of great things for our team and has taken us to the next level.”
Playing in the postseason would be an ideal way for Nixon to celebrate her senior season in 2019.
“We have ambitious goals,” said Nixon, a political science major, who is spending her summer working as a summer analyst for Morgan Stanley. “We hope to make the Ivy League and NCAA tournaments. If you win the Ivy League Tournament, you get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, but if you don’t win the league tournament, you can still get a bid. But once we get into that league tournament, it’s more about the grit and hunger a team has and who wants it more.”