Nielsen discovered lacrosse at a young age by being curious, asking her tennis doubles partner, who wore a T-Shirt with Lacrosse on it, what it meant. She never looked back.
They say that success breeds success – and in the case of Hannah Nielsen, Sonia La Monica, the Adams’ sisters, and the Brighton Lacrosse Club, it seems to hold true.
Before Hannah Nielsen joined Brighton, a path to elite success at the club had already been paved by the staggeringly skillful, Jen Adams.
They were seven years apart, but their lacrosse journeys have been strikingly similar. Having both begun at the Brighton club, they would each participate in five World Cups (Jen Adams was an assistant coach in one).
Selection in All World Teams followed for both – Adams in two, Nielsen in four.
They shared a lifetime and career-crowning moment when they took the field together for Australia in the final of the 2005 World Lacrosse Cup against the US, dominating their fierce, long-time adversaries 14-7.
They would then go on to be international teammates for Australia at three more world championships.
Like Adams, who went to Maryland University in Maryland, Nielsen was recruited on a four-year lacrosse scholarship to Northwestern University in Illinois.
Remarkably, they both led their respective university teams to four consecutive NCAA titles, Adams from 1998-2001, and Nielsen from 2006-09. Both also won the Tewaaraton Award, a rare honour bestowed on the most outstanding male and female American college lacrosse player of that year – Nielsen being a two-time winner.
She was considered a team leader with poise and patience on the field, and an astuteness in reading the play.
“She has the ability to step up in pressure situations like Michael Jordan, who you always knew would make the big shot,” Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said in the Chicago Tribune prior to the NCAA semi-finals. “And she has that Larry Bird characteristic of making the people around her better,” (ESPN Sports).
They both remained in the US, fulfilling their potential as leaders in the game, first as assistant coaches and then as head coaches of female college athletes.
Nielsen discovered lacrosse at a young age by being curious, asking her tennis double partner, who wore a T-Shirt with Lacrosse on it, what it meant. She tasted it and loved it.
The sport’s physicalness – being able to run around through the mud, make contact, and get dirty – drew Nielsen in.
Jen Adams’ older sister, Trish, was her Brighton coach. Then, as a middle schooler, she saw a Maryland highlight video of Jen Adams, and it fueled a burning desire for more. “I remember thinking I want to do that—I want to go to the States and do that,” she said.
The parallels of this story between Hannah Nielsen and Jen Adams are remarkable, both hugely significant in the story of women’s lacrosse in South Australia. And well beyond.
Hannah Nielsen has been inducted into the Lacrosse Australia Hall of Fame.
