From Towering Goalie to Elite Recruit: Murphy Holden's Rise in the Class of 2028

Murphy Holden’s height makes her an imposing lacrosse goalie. Her sturdy 6-foot, 2-inch frame alone daunts shooters. 

Then she moves. She flashes around the crease, cutting down angles, nimbly dropping and popping back up while vocally commanding the defense.

“She’s the type of goalie you have to game plan against,” said U.S. Girls’ U17 Youth National Team coach Kyle Ohlmiller Rees. “Because of, No. 1 how big she is and how much space she takes up in the net, but also how athletic and quick she is, how quick she is to drop to the ground and make sprawling saves. You just don’t expect it out of her. She’s game changing.”

Arguably the top goalie in the high school class of 2028, Holden, who plays for Laxachusetts Black and Pingree School (Mass.), was named to the youth national team earlier this week after getting cut last year.

Her growth — both in physical stature and skill development — is a big reason why her phone will be buzzing Sept. 1 with offers from college coaches. They can contact high school juniors as early as noon, a change from the previous midnight start time. 

“I'm really excited,” Holden said. “All the hard work that I've been doing this summer [and going back to last] winter and fall, playing lacrosse all throughout, I’m just trying to be grateful and take in every opportunity that comes my way.”

Holden has come a long way since answering a request six years ago. Three doors down in Beverly, Mass., Maggie Melei was part of a lacrosse family. She was always asking Holden to try lacrosse. Holden, though, was more into ice hockey and basketball. Her father, John, put her on skates at age 5. Her mother, Becky, played college basketball at Boston College and was inducted into the hall of fame there in 2009.

Finally, the girls made an agreement in fifth grade.

“Maggie, if you play hockey with me, I'll play lacrosse with you,” Holden said. “Maggie started playing hockey with me, and I went to a skills night for lacrosse. And it was awesome.”

The two still play both sports today as teammates at Pingree. Holden’s mom thought she might be able to use her size like a post player in basketball to be a goal scoring attacker on the lacrosse field. Holden had other ideas.

“Literally after the first practice I was like, ‘Hey, I gotta wear sweatpants for the next practice. I'm gonna be the goalie,’” she said.

It was a familiar spot. Holden also plays goalie in ice hockey, and she’s played goalie for the Pingree junior varsity soccer team.

“Being a hockey goalie, being a goalie in general, has just been very helpful to me,” Holden said.

The skill sets and the mindset are similar for each sport, but not the same. Holden began in Beverly Youth Lacrosse shortly thereafter, but it took a lot of work to get to this level in the sport. She credits much of her development to Mo Spellman, the head coach at nearby Endicott College. She met Spellman at a Peak Goalie camp and has continued to work with her to this day.

“That taught me all the fundamentals, literally just how to stop the ball first,” Holden said. “I give incredible thanks to Coach Mo and just how she taught me all these years.”

Holden was already taller in sixth grade than Spellman was when she started working with her. Spellman was intrigued immediately by Holden, who always played with a smile and always asked for more reps while working up a serious sweat every time she trained.

“She was like a typical sixth grader,” Spellman said. “She was awkward and moved weird, but she had zero fear of the ball. Her hands were fast as hell. And she loved it. She loved being there.”

Holden dived into her new sport. Her parents didn’t have lacrosse experience, but they signed her up for the town team and club followed soon after that. Hockey, basketball and soccer all took a back seat to lacrosse.

“Being able to stuff these kids is so awesome, and then to see your team all riled up on the sideline is awesome,” Holden said. “As soon as I took up lacrosse and went into cage, I was like, ‘All right, I'm going to run with this.’ And I focused on that as a priority because I just fell in love with it.”

There was plenty of work to be done with her lateral footwork, and Spellman emphasized how important it was that Holden become an outstanding communicator. Even as she got improved at every aspect of the position and began to draw more attention, she stayed humble. Now she’s among the best in her class.

“Murph’s a little different because I think she'll actually make a team better rather than getting to a really high-level program and just fitting in and squeaking by,” Spellman said. “She's going to make whatever team she lands with better.”

Holden has already done so at the high school level. She led Pingree to a 13-4 record as a sophomore. The only goalie on the roster, she allowed just 6.82 goals per game, had a 56.9% save percentage and caused 13 turnovers. 

“I don't even think size is her best feature,” Pingree coach Tori Wehner said. “I didn't even mention her size. Obviously her height is great, but she also gets lower faster than any goalie I've ever coached or played with.”

Holden prides herself on her quick hands. She also has developed strong stick skills. She committed just eight turnovers after 153 saves, and her ability to clear the ball quickly and accurately helped ignite the Highlanders’ fast break and generate offense.

“She was the key to all of our success this season,” Wehner said. “Having a goalie in net where you can go up against some of the best teams in the country and know that no matter what, she's going to be making over 50% saves, that gave us the edge to beat a lot of these teams in our league. They should have beaten us.”

Wehner, who played at Syracuse, was in her first season as the Pingree coach. On the team’s preseason trip to Florida, she was impressed by Holden’s communication and overwhelming support of her teammates. Then she saw Holden’s athleticism and work ethic as she kept up with all but a few midfielders in sprints. 

“She was sticking right with them, never gave up and would always make sure that she finished every sprint with the rest of the team,” Wehner said. “I did not have to wait to start another sprint with the rest of the girls because we had a goalie falling behind.”

It’s been a big summer for Holden since the end of the high school season. She impressed through the summer playing for Laxachusetts Black, a club that she’s played for since middle school. Directors Tracey Sullivan, Abbey Simeone and Sami Taylor saw Holden’s same stellar goalie play as well as her strengths as a teammate.

“When she's not in on her half, she’s standing up, cheering everybody on, getting everybody fired up, good or bad. She is our Energizer Bunny,” Sullivan said. “She just keeps our team moving. She is just the whole package.”

Holden has always been a mature player, but she’s fostered some important elements to her game over the last couple years. Her mental game has developed; she doesn’t let goals get to her, though she’s still accountable. And she’s worked at the technical side. She’s more patient in goal now, less likely to come out and give up something easy. She’s also able to bait shooters better nowadays to create the shots that she wants to see.

A big part of her development, she said, is her willingness to sell out and drop completely to stop lower shots. It’s different than what she was accustomed to in ice hockey, a sport in which she’s positioned lower to the ground and more heavily padded.

In addition to working with Spellman, Holden received high-intensity training at The Goaliesmith Experience in Maryland this summer.

“I just didn't kind of know how to,” Holden said. “Throwing your body, getting the legs out, was foreign to me. But after I figured it out, the coaches at Goaliesmith really put that into my mind that selling out will help you make these saves. It works.”

It’s another facet to her game that is helping her prepare for the next level. She would love to compete for a starting job when she gets to college.

“The speed and the quickness of the attackers' ball movements, their shots are a little bit faster,” Sullivan said. “That's something she'll need to adjust to, which I don't think she'll have any problem with doing. She already plays at the highest level playing at the USA Lacrosse combine and then hopefully she'll get international experience.”

Holden was one of two goalies selected to the 2026 U.S. Girls’ U17 Youth National Team. The other was Cambria Williams, a returning netminder from California. They’ll play teams from Lacrosse Canada and the Haudenosaunee Nationals at the Brogden Cup (Sept. 25-27 in Sparks, Md.) and Rivalry Challenge (Oct. 9-11 in Oshawa, Ontario).

Holden was the youngest U17 candidate invited to the USA Lacrosse National Team Development Program National Combine in 2025. Not making the team, she said, provided motivation for this go around. It also demonstrated her coachability. Evaluators recognized her size again, but they also saw in Holden a polished, more confident goalie.

“She took all of the feedback that we gave her and then showed up this year at tryouts having done that tenfold,” Ohlmiller Rees said. “It was like a complete 180.”

Others have recognized her hard work and talent too. By the time the Brogden Cup rolls around, Holden could already be verbally committed to a college. She’ll have her pick of where to attend after elevating her level each year to make her one of the most coveted goalies in the 2028 class.

“I want to keep challenging myself as a leader, as a player, as a student,” Holden said. “Making sure I am ready for all the opportunities that hopefully come my way and being grateful for all the things I've been given from my family and from my coaches.”