Early September, girls lacrosse star player Maddy Tlapa (‘25) committed to University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Fast forward to October, fellow star player Roxi Stone (‘25) will be joining her teammate at UCCS.
The pair have been playing together since the sixth grade and are field hockey teammates as well. They not only share a bond on the field, but also a close friendship off the field that only makes them even better teammates.
In just a year, the dynamic duo will once again be playing on the same team together, but instead as Mountain Lions.
Tlapa’s recruiting process required many hard decisions to be made. Not only did she have to decide which school was the best fit for her, but she also had to choose between playing field hockey or lacrosse at the next level, two sports she excels greatly at.
“I thought I didn’t want to play lacrosse in college for a really long time, then the Colorado Springs coach reached out to me. Once I got on the campus, I realized that this was something that I really wanted to do,” Maddy explained.
During her time at Forge, Tlapa has been a 4 year varsity athlete for both field hockey and lacrosse. She is a 2 time all-district, all-area player for lacrosse, and one time all-region. She has also been the captain of both of her teams for the last two years.
Stone is no stranger to success
s on the lacrosse field herself. Similar to Tlapa, she has also played field hockey and lacrosse all throughout her high school career. She is a 4 time varsity lacrosse player, 2 time all-district, and all-area as well.
Despite these achievements, Stone was adamant that she was not going to play lacrosse in college.
She was going through her senior year the same as any other regular senior, completing her applications without any thought of playing in college. This was until her best friend, Maddy committed to UCCS.
“We feed off of each other. Roxi has really good field vision so she assists on a lot of my goals and we can really just read each other and we always know each other’s next moves. Actually, right after my visit I called her and was like Roxi you gotta go here,” Tlapa said.
With the bitter sweetness of senior year, playing together next year gives the pair something positive to look forward to.
“It’s good because now I won’t be as sad when I play my final lacrosse game, whenever that should be, because I know I have four more years playing. I do not think that I would want to do it with anyone else, so I am so excited,” Stone concluded.
