Photography by Steve Buchanan
Looking back, Lexi Dupcak didn’t have much say on whether she could take draws or not during her first year playing for the Maryland United Lacrosse Club. She was only a fifth grader and her father Neal and mother Maureen coached her.
Besides, Dupcak’s older sister Sammy had already been taking draws for the same program. “My parents were my coaches for the longest time in club,” Lexi explains. “I think they just stuck me there because no one else wanted to do it. They didn’t want to put pressure on someone who wasn’t their kid. So, I guess I got pretty good at doing it.”
That may be an understatement. Dupcak set the Broadneck High School single-season, school-record for won draws with 145, beating her sister’s old mark. That accomplishment helped her be named the County’s Player of the Year and a USA Lacrosse All-American.
“I go to school every day and see it posted on the wall among all the players that have gone onto Division I schools since the ’80s,” Dupcak says. “Just seeing it in person is crazy.”
Dupcak’s ability to win draws, score goals in bunches, and her outstanding play on both sides of the ball, along with her speed, are a few reasons she’ll be playing lacrosse at the University of Maryland next season.
The 5-foot-6 midfielder jumped at the chance to play for powerhouse Maryland, a school where both of her parents excelled in the sport. Dupcak verbally committed to the Terps—a program that has won four national championships since 2014—early on as a junior and signed a National Letter of Intent last fall.
Dupcak also received a scholarship offer from Penn State, the school where her sister plays. She also considered Ohio State, Clemson, and San Diego.
“I was just really comfortable with the school and lacrosse program,” Dupcak says of Maryland. “Both of my parents went there and played lacrosse. And I love the coaching staff. They do a really good job recruiting and make you feel like you are part of the team already.”
Dupcak’s achievements jump out at Broadneck. She helped both the field hockey and lacrosse teams to state championships in 2022.
Dupcak dominated in lacrosse last spring, leading the team in goals (63) and racking up 18 assists. The Baltimore Sun named her First-Team All-Metro. She had some eye-catching games, scoring five goals against Severna Park in the county championship game in early May, and notching five goals in a 15-6 conquest of Marriotts Ridge in late March.
The 17-year-old Dupcak also gets high marks for tenacious defense and leadership skills. “She’s very quick, smart, and athletic,” Broadneck Girls Lacrosse Coach Katy Kelley says of Dupcak, who had 27 goals in a 12-game shortened pandemic season as a sophomore. “She is a really good cutter in space on the offensive end. The nickname for her was ‘sneak’ because she is sneaky good on the offensive end.”
Dupcak also developed her game by playing seven seasons for Maryland United. She played in tournaments as far away as Texas.
“We play against such a good level of competition,” says Neal Dupcak, who coached his daughter for all her years in the program. “Club lacrosse has been a great experience for her. She is probably more naturally talented on offense, but I think club helped her complete her game and made her stronger on defense.”
Dupcak can’t talk about lacrosse without bringing up her parents several times. Neal played four years at Maryland and Maureen is in the school’s athletic hall of fame for standout careers in lacrosse and field hockey.
“The lacrosse talk never stops in our house,” Dupcak says. “They have a lot of knowledge, obviously, because they played in college. So, it’s been really helpful.”
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