Mindy McCord never shies away from a chance to be heard.
She’s active on X, posting about recruiting, fall ball, football and Little League baseball. She welcomed USA Lacrosse Magazine staff to Tampa for a behind-the-scenes visit during South Florida’s debut season in 2025.
But on Sunday, May 3, she — and the rest of the USF program — fell silent. The Selection Show had ended, and so had the Bulls’ second season.
USF was the No. 1 seed in the American Athletic Conference but fell to James Madison in the tournament final. It held a No. 17 RPI when every other tournament ended. It also became the first team with an RPI of 21 or higher to not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Bubble burst. Pins dropped.
“It was very quiet after the last team was named,” McCord said. “In my head I was like, ‘I have to get up and talk now.’ I don’t even think I prepared one way or another. I was so in the moment of, ‘Wow, we’re actually sitting in a room with this opportunity.’”
McCord focused on what the Bulls did to get into that room and earn an at-large bid and how they proved Team One’s record in 2025 wasn’t a fluke. USF became the first program to play in a conference title game in each of its first two seasons in Division I women’s lacrosse.
She didn’t focus on the committee, though American commissioner Tim Pernetti had something to say to them.
“No women’s lacrosse team with an RPI of 21 or higher has ever been left out of the NCAA Tournament since the field expanded to 29 teams. @USFWLAX finished the season at 17 and did not get selected while multiple teams outside the top 21 were selected. Unacceptable,” he said on X.
For her part, Lindsey Thomas, the senior associate athletic director at Florida and the NCAA Selection Committee chair, mentioned after the Selection Show that RPI was just one factor and pointed to USF’s lone top-20 win against James Madison in the regular season.
McCord understands that it’s a tough room to be in. She’s been there, too.
“I took two turns on that committee,” McCord said. “I understand there are a lot of factors. ... Our fan base can go crazy and say what they want to say, but I don’t want to participate in that kind of stuff. I recognize there are so many criteria and everybody’s just doing their best.”
McCord wouldn’t mind expanding the 29-team field, but that won’t happen in 2027. And so the Bulls are playing for today with a slogan to meet the moment.
“We don't want to look in the rearview mirror,” McCord said. “We're not going to go too far forward. We're just embracing ‘Be Great Today.’ Focus on your controllables, what you can control, and if we all could do that every day, we're going to build wins this whole fall that are hopefully going to translate over onto the field in the spring.”
OK, but really, there are no lingering feelings in the Bulls locker room about last year’s ending? McCord won’t speak for all the returners.
“When they hit the season, I think the [returners] are going to remember those losses that were so close,” McCord said. “You remember the little discipline things that maybe we could have done better. Some people will totally leave it behind.”
McCord likes her group of upperclassmen, which includes three seniors and 21 juniors (redshirts included). It does not include last year’s leading scorer, Sofia Chepenik (51G, 18A), who transferred to Stony Brook for her graduate season.
“She was a great leader, and Stony Brook does a great job. They’re in the NCAAs every year,” McCord said. “She’s a Bull for life — but now she gets to have a different experience in graduate school, and we’re excited for her opportunity.”
The Bulls are also excited about who will step up on offense in her stead.
Brooke Molchanoff is one possibility. Molchanoff was the 2026 MAAC Offensive Player of the Year after tallying a single-season program-record 82 points, including 60 goals. Lefty Madisyn Joker and Julia Huxtable are also in the mix. McCord said Ava Uphues (40G, 3A) has returned “bigger, faster, stronger.”
Kali Cleary (73 DC) and Bailey Morris (34 DC) return to circle play, with Morris expected to help as a two-way midfielder.
Defensively, goalie Natalie Kelly gained international experience, playing for Team Australia at the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship this summer. She’ll anchor a unit that includes last season’s backer, Lucy Livingston. Freshman Ella Dye, an all-county performer out of Glenelg Country School (Md.), and Jillian McNaughton, a fifth-year crease defender from national semifinalist Johns Hopkins, are among newcomers.
But the depth chart is a work in progress, written in pencil.
“In the fall, I hit the reset button,” McCord said. “It doesn’t matter what you did last year. Everyone has a reset. Go earn your spots. Every job is open.”
In short, ‘be great.’
“Every day, you have to wake up with a dream that inspires and motivates you to be great today,” McCord said. “If you don’t feel that, then your goals don’t matter.”
McCord and the Bulls feel that, and they do have goals — to win championships, including national ones — even if their focus is on the fall. They know it won’t be easy.
“There are no surprises anymore,” McCord said. “You're on team three, and now you want to create consistency — be able to repeat, but then also ultimately get into the NCAA tournament. That's everybody's dream that they're working for every year.”
And the Bulls don’t want to leave anything to “surprises” on Selection Sunday.
“We’ve been to that championship game now for two years in a row, and we’ve come up against a tenured James Madison team who knows how to win that game,” McCord said. “You’ve got to learn how to win that tournament game. You have to win the games that you have to win.”
Third team's a charm?
