Erica Evans

Personal: Evans serves as the head women's lacrosse coach at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, where she has achieved an 8-3 record in her first season. Prior to this, she was an assistant coach at Trent for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, leading the team to consecutive OUA titles. Evans majored in supply chain management at Maryland after earning her undergraduate degree in physical and health education at Canisius. Outside of lacrosse, she has a passion for traveling and hopes to visit over 100 countries. Evans has a cat named Colbie and credits her parents, Laurie and David, as people who have made a difference in her life. If she wasn't playing lacrosse, she would want to be an ice hockey player, as she grew up playing ice hockey, box lacrosse, and soccer. In her free time, Evans enjoys coaching lacrosse and reading books. She has won three box lacrosse national championships in Canada with Team Ontario. Evans also comes from a family with a strong sports background, as her cousin Turner Evans played in the National Lacrosse League, her cousin Shawn Evans has played 16 seasons in the National Lacrosse League, her uncle Doug Evans spent nine seasons in the National Hockey League, and her uncle Paul Evans played two seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League. Her other uncle, Kevin Evans, appeared in nine games over two years in the National Hockey League.

2023 Season: Evans accumulated 706 leaderboard points during her first Athletes Unlimited season. She was a starter in all 12 games and scored 13 goals with five assists. Additionally, she registered 11 ground balls and authored five multi-goal games. Evans scored two goals with an assist to close Week One against Team Mastroianni on July 23. She also had two goals with an assist on August 12 against Team Moreno and notched a season-high two assists and added a goal against Team Mastroianni in the Week One finale. Evans posted 100 or more leaderboard points four times, including a season-high 149 points on July 22 against Team Apuzzo.

International Experience: Evans has represented Canada as a member of the national team. She played a crucial role in leading Canada to a Silver medal at the 2022 World Lacrosse Women's World Championship. Evans tied for the team lead with 26 points in eight games, scoring a team-high 24 goals. She had six multi-goal performances, including five games with three or more goals. Notably, she scored five goals with two assists in a dominant 20-1 victory over Scotland. Evans also helped Canada secure a Gold medal at The World Games. At the 2017 FIL World Cup, she was Canada's leading scorer with 19 goals and two assists, earning a spot on the All-World Team. In the same year, Evans contributed to Canada's Silver medal win at The World Games, scoring 14 goals with three assists in four games. Additionally, she was recognized with an All-World Team selection at the 2015 FIL U-19 Women's World Lacrosse Championship, where she led Canada to a Gold medal. Evans ranked third in the tournament field with 24 goals while tying for seventh place with 28 points. She was also a three-time national champion with the Team Ontario box lacrosse team.

Other Professional Experience: Evans was the fifth overall pick in the 2019 WPLL Draft by the Upstate Pride. 

At Maryland: Evans returned from injury to help guide Maryland to the 2019 NCAA Championship. During her time with the Terrapins, she started in all 23 games, tying for the team lead with 59 goals and adding 15 assists and 23 ground balls. She scored 32 goals in her final nine games, including a season-high six goals against Johns Hopkins in the regular season finale.

At Canisius: Evans played four years at Canisius before transferring to Maryland for her graduate year in 2019. Throughout her college career, she was a three-time All-America selection by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association. As a junior at Canisius, she received Second-Team All-America honors, following Third-Team recognition in her sophomore year. Evans also earned Third-Team IWLCA All-America recognition during her time at Maryland. She was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Midfielder of the Year three times and received All-MAAC First Team honors as a freshman, sophomore, and junior. Evans started 58 games over three seasons at Canisius, scoring a school-record 186 goals with 60 assists. She ranks third in Canisius history with 246 career points and is one of six players in the program's history to reach the 200-point mark. Evans achieved back-to-back 70-goal seasons as a sophomore and junior, becoming the only player in Canisius history to record 100 or more points in a season. She also holds the Canisius single-season record with 69 ground balls during the 2017 season.