Osborn, Foresi go hand in hand with Capital lacrosse
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
Capital’s Grace Osborn scored 111 goals and added 28 assists for the Comets as a sophomore midfielder last season. Her 6.94 goals per game and 8.69 points per game led all of NCAA Division III. Photo courtesy of Joe Maiorana of ImpactActionPhotos.com via Capital University athletics department.
The careers of Grace Osborn and Julia Foresi have been intertwined for a long time. It’s part of what makes the two sophomore midfielders work hand in hand with the Capital women’s lacrosse team.
Osborn and Foresi led the Comets to their second consecutive NCAA tournament, falling to Washington and Lee 22-5 in the second round to finish 11-5. Capital, which started its program in 2014, had never advanced to the NCAA tournament before this run.
Osborn scored 111 goals, had 139 points and 117 draw controls and Foresi had team-bests with 59 assists (85 points) and 46 ground balls, adding 102 draw controls for the Comets.
“(Foresi) matches me with her energy,” Osborn said. “She’s out there to play (and) she’s out there to win. That’s the mindset people need to have. I have that mindset. When we’re on the field, we work hand in hand with each other.”
Osborn’s 6.94 goals and 8.69 points per game led all of NCAA Division III. Capital’s 19.75 draw controls per game also led Division III.
“I would say a good majority of my assists get finished because (Osborn) is just so talented at getting it in (the net),” Foresi said. “I’ve known her as a player for a little while, so building that connection got to be pretty easy when we got to play on the same team.”
Osborn, 2021 Pickerington Central graduate and Foresi, who graduated from Gahanna in 2020, are just two of a bevy of talent from central Ohio for the Comets.
Graduate student Luci Kanowsky (62 goals) graduated from Hartley in 2018, sophomore Andi Henry (37 goals, 53 draw controls), is a 2020 Olentangy Berlin graduate and freshman Brenna Todd (10 caused turnovers) is a 2022 Pickerington Central graduate also played key roles for Capital in the midfield as well junior Rylee Jarvis (21 ground balls, a 2019 Pickerington North graduate is a key player on defense.
Capital midfielder Julia Foresi led with 59 assists to go with 26 goals as a sophomore for the Comets last season. Photo courtesy of Tim Janz via the Capital University athletics department.
Often overlooked
Osborn’s ability to score has been a skill since she was in high school at Central.
She holds the program’s single-season record for goals (107) and points (131), twice set the single-game record with 15 draw controls and tied Lauren Morris’ single-game mark of 10 goals, all set in her senior season before graduating in 2021.
“In high school I didn’t think I was good enough to play (at a) higher (level) just because Pickerington Central wasn’t that (highly regarded),” Osborn said. “I didn’t know if I could compete with higher ranked girls. I got told by some schools in the OAC that I wasn’t good enough to play and start for them. I loved (Capital coach) Stacey Florence and thought this was a place I could play and get better.”
Osborn had opportunities to play Division II or even Division I lacrosse collegiately, but chose to stay close to home.
Walton believes it’s a choice that cost her some postseason accolades in high school.
“I don’t think she got the credit in high school she deserved,” he said. “That’s part because Pickerington Central is not one of the programs that comes to the forefront when people think of lacrosse in central Ohio. I think she was second-team all-state her senior year. She dominated her senior year.
“I think the other reason she didn’t get a lot of respect from the other (voters) in terms of (postseason) honors is because she wasn’t committed to a DI university. But that’s not because she didn’t have the options. She just didn’t pursue them. I had Division I coaches contacting me about her and I know there was some interest. She was not interested in playing Division I lacrosse.”
She made an immediate impact with the Comets, scoring a program-record 126 goals as a freshman. Her 6.0 goals per game led Division III.
Osborn is already second all-time in the program behind Kanowsky (254).
“I think Capital showed me that I’m better than I thought I was,” Osborn said. “But there’s still (room for) improvement. If I’m not the best in D-III, then there’s still improvement to be made.”
Capital women’s lacrosse coach Stacey Florence has led the Comets to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances over the last two seasons, the program’s first appearances. Florence is 124-38 overall, including OAC tournament championships in 2022 and ’23 and a regular season league championship in 2022. Photo courtesy of Brendan Eagan, Capital University athletics department.
Florence took notice of Osborn early in her high school career.
“She’s one of those kids that has a crazy work ethic,” Florence said. “If she’s not doing something well, she wants to be taught how to do it the right way and will practice it and practice it until she has it down. I have never coached anybody with her work ethic. I think that’s what sets her apart from other players – especially in our conference.”
Osborn led the Ohio Athletic Conference in goals (55), points (72) and draw controls (57), Foresi led in assists (36) and caused turnovers (21). But Capital, which finished second in the conference at 6-1 behind Mount Union (7-0) in the regular season, was shut out of Position Player of the Year honors on May 5.
It was an extra source of motivation for Osborn, Foresi and the Comets, who defeated Mount Union 20-17 in the conference’s title game the next day in Alliance.
The Comets hadn’t beaten the Purple Raiders in the conference tournament in five previous matchups, including championship games in 2016, ’18 and ’19.
Osborn broke the program record in points and tied her own record in goals in the win.
Still, Osborn was second-team All-American, the program’s first selection. Osborn and Foresi were also named to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Great Lakes Region first-team.
“I don’t know how many goals I score in a game until after the fact,” Osborn said. “I just take it as my main job on the field. So, I don’t really know when the reigns are holding me back and when they’re letting me go. (Scoring) is just my job.”
Capital sophomore midfielder Grace Osborn had 111 goals and 28 assists for the Comets last season. Her 8.69 points per game not only set a program record, but led all of NCAA Division III. Photo courtesy of Tim Janz via Capital University athletics department.
Long, winding road
Capital needed someone to step up after losing Brooke Delara to graduation after the 2022 season.
Delara, now coaching at Berlin, is Capital’s all-time leader in assists (201) and games played (74). Foresi filled the void seamlessly.
“She just really hit her peak this year for us when we really needed her,” Florence said. “She will feed anybody that is cutting and working hard off the ball. She likes to make those plays happen. She will put it in the back of the net as well, but I think she really enjoys assisting people and setting people up.”
Foresi’s road to Capital was full of twists and turns. She was still recovering from a severe knee injury suffered her sophomore year in high school when she attended Ohio State in the fall of 2020 as a student and joined the Central staff as junior varsity coach the following spring.
“I had taken a bad cut and tore my meniscus and done some cartilage damage that got repaired, but now all the way,” Foresi said. “After years of running on it some more, I had to get donor cartilage in there because it carved out all the way down to my bone. So, it was bone on bone rubbing for a little while. I had to get two more surgeries to fix that. It was quite the journey to get through.”
Foresi thought her playing days were in the past.
“I had gone to OSU and liked the school,” Foresi said. “I was like, ‘Welp, I’ll just keep coaching, but I don’t think playing is in my future until (Central coach Brian Walton) suggested going to Capital. His daughter (Kathryn Walton) played at Capital.”
Kathryn Walton is Capital’s all-time leader in ground balls (231) and caused turnovers (153) and is third all-time in points (302) and draw controls (237), fourth in goals (227) and tied for fifth in assists (75).
But Foresi missed playing the sport, so after hearing that Osborn was going to play at Capital, she decided to join the team.
“Selfishly, I wanted my daughter to win a ring, so I was trying to convince her to play at Capital right out of high school,” coach Walton said. “Her knee was still bothering her when she was coaching with us. She still had a little bit of limp and you could tell it was bothering her. Realistically, she couldn’t have played a full season.”
Still recovering from her last knee surgery, she scored 25 goals and added 23 assists with 46 ground balls in 21 games as a freshman.
“If you watched film of her playing the 2022 and compared it to the 2023 season, I think she looked like a completely different player,” Walton said. “She just didn’t have the explosiveness and the cutting ability (that she has now). She was still a great player, but she looked a lot better last season than she did her first year at Capital in my opinion.”
‘I love being part of a team’
Foresi is training to be a firefighter, which helped her turn the corner on the field.
A social work major, she ran the Columbus Half Marathon last fall to get in shape for the firefighter exam.
“I switched to midfield halfway through this season because we needed someone,” Foresi said. “Having that little bit of cardio background helped make that transition on the field a little bit easier. Having a sense of teamwork is huge for me (on the field) and I think that’s true as a firefighter too. I love being there and being a part of a team.”
It was that training that helped her become stronger and faster on the field.
“Training for that definitely helped my speed,” Foresi said. “Running on more on my knee and being able to without pain has just been super helpful. Training in the offseason to be a firefighter is a motivator that translates on the field pretty well.”
Running is a big part of Osborn’s background as well. She was a four-time regional qualifier in cross country with the Tigers. She doesn’t run competitively now, but she’s still active.
“I think it just gives me energy throughout the whole game,” Osborn said. “I have not had a game where I’ve been gassed because I run all the time. I make sure to keep up on my running because I played a summer of lacrosse before without running and it is a whole different ball game. You get gassed on the field if you’re not endured.”
Osborn is an early education major and plans on teaching and coaching after her playing career.
“I ref for Northstar and then I give private lessons and then help coach a summer lacrosse team (with Tempest),” she said. “Just mainly being around kids because I want to build on that. I want to coach in the future. Teaching and coaching kind of go hand in hand.”