Flagler's Fast Rise Sees Saints Reach No. 1 in National Rankings

They were celebrating in St. Augustine on Thursday night, and it was well deserved.

The Flagler Saints, a fifth-year program that has risen quickly in the Division II women’s lacrosse ranks, had just slayed the dragon, rallying from a one-goal halftime deficit to defeat No. 1 Florida Southern 13-7.  

The victory was a milestone win in Flagler’s short history, marking both its first ever win over a No. 1 team and its first win in five tries against perennial powerhouse FSC.

Now sporting a 6-0 record — the team’s best-ever start — the Saints also carry another noteworthy achievement into Tuesday’s home game against Westminster. For the first time ever, they are No. 1 in both the USA Lacrosse Division II Women’s Top 20, presented by CWENCH Hydration, and the IWLCA coaches’ poll.

“This is super exciting for us, and our chats are blowing up,” senior team captain Ella Pinder said. “But we also know that we have to stay focused and keep working hard every day in practice.”

Grant Kelam, the only coach in the program’s history, knew this day was coming. After all, the Saints have trended in this direction almost from the very beginning.

“There’s such great competition here in Florida, and steel sharpens steel, so you have to rise to the occasion,” Kelam said. “There’s been a lot of hard work that has gone into this.”

After an 11-8 inaugural campaign in 2022, Flagler has won the Gulf South Conference championship in each of the past three seasons with three straight trips to the NCAA tournament. In two of those years, the postseason ended with a loss to Florida Southern, including a heartbreaking 16-15 overtime loss in the 2024 regional semifinal.

“Florida Southern is a heck of a program, and Kara Reber is a fantastic coach, and they are always prepared and always play hard,” Kelam said. “Thursday’s game was an awesome game to be a part of. It was awesome to watch and awesome to coach.”

The first 20 minutes appeared to set the tone for Florida Southern’s fifth straight win in the series, as the Mocs built a 5-2 lead. This time, though, it was different.

Two Flagler goals to close the second quarter, including Ava Lambros’ man-down goal with 23 seconds left, pulled the Saints to within one at halftime. They then owned the second half, outscoring the Mocs 9-2 and limiting the high-scoring visitors to just one goal over the final 26 minutes.

“We know that we have the talent here to get the job done, and once we got some transition goals in the second half, the momentum started to build for us,” senior defender Molly Sloan said.

Almost since the beginning, one of Kelam’s strategies has been to build and maintain one of the largest rosters of any team in the country. This year’s squad has 57 players representing 14 states with 10 transfers and 18 freshmen. Last year’s team had a roster of 55, and the year before that it was 49.

“I think our depth really works as a big advantage because we’re able to run two to three lines of two-way midfielders,” Kelam said. “When you look at Division II, there are a lot of teams that have a good core of players, but beyond that, what does the rest of the roster look like? We have great competition every day in practice, and that helps everyone to get better.”

Having complete buy-in from everyone on the roster seems to be part of the secret sauce for the Saints. Kelam says that everyone has equal accountability within the team culture that has been created.

“We always tell the players that we don’t want them to be satisfied, but we want them to be grounded,” he said. “We know that everyone is not going to like every decision, but we explain our decisions and try to provide full transparency. I guarantee that every player will feel cared for as an individual and they will be treated with respect.”

The bonds are strong, the confidence is high, and the celebrations are fun.

“We are all so close on this team, and we have so much fun competing together every day,” Sloan said. “Everyone brings something different to the table, and we love to challenge each other. Even during games, the energy on our sidelines is so great. Everyone is so supportive of each other.”