Sam Apuzzo
Biography
Personal: Apuzzo is a member of Athletes Unlimited Pro Lacrosse's Player Executive Committee and currently works as an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Boston College. She helped the Eagles win the 2021 and 2024 NCAA Division I championships and earned her master’s degree in Sports Administration from Boston College in 2021 after receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2019. Apuzzo has a goldendoodle named Ollie and played soccer and basketball growing up. She enjoys being active, spending time outdoors, and being with her family. She also likes to play tennis on a weekly basis when the weather allows and is the youngest of four children in her family.
2023 Season: Apuzzo earned her second consecutive runner-up finish after compiling 1,667 leaderboard points. She became the first athlete in any Athletes Unlimited sport to earn medalist honors in three seasons. Apuzzo also led the league with 985 win points and 360 MVP points, ranked seventh in the circuit with 322 stat points, and set a league single-season record by garnering nine Game MVP awards. She also authored a league-best 9-3 record as a captain, leading a team in every week for the second year in a row. Furthermore, she ranked second in the league by scoring 30 goals and recording 43 points, and she tied with Dempsey Arsenault for the league lead after dishing out 12 assists. Apuzzo was one of eight players in the league to score a two-point goal and ranked second in the league with 84 shots, including 61 attempts on goal. She opened the season by claiming MVP 1 honors in five of her first seven games and led Team Apuzzo to victory over Team Mastroianni in the season opener by scoring four goals with an assist. Additionally, she tallied two goals, including a two-pointer, with an assist in the Week One finale against Team Moreno. She started Week Two by securing MVP 1 honors against Team Read with two goals and matching a league record with four assists. Apuzzo tallied three goals with two assists against Team Moreno on July 30 before opening Week Three with a four-goal, one-assist performance against Team Glynn. She garnered MVP 3 recognition against Team Bosco on August 5 after scoring twice and earned Game MVP in all three games during the final week of the season. She posted four goals against Team Bosco on August 10 to secure the sixth MVP 1 accolade of the season and scored twice against Team Glynn on August 12 for MVP 2 recognition. Apuzzo finished the season with three goals and an assist against Team Moreno to earn the MVP 1 award and registered 100 or more leaderboard points in 8 of 12 games, including two games with at least 200 points.
2022 Season: Apuzzo placed second on the leaderboard with 1,782 points and started all 12 games. She was the first player in Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse history to serve as a captain every week of a season. Apuzzo led the league with 1,130 win points and 270 MVP points, finishing with a 10-2 record. She ranked second in the league with 24 goals and 41 points, scoring at least one goal in 11 out of 12 games. She had nine multi-goal games and closed the season with 14 goals in the final five games, including three hat tricks. Apuzzo set a league record with 15 shots and scored four goals against Team Glynn. She also had three goals, including a two-pointer, and an assist against Team Johansen in Week Four, and another three-goal effort against Team Johansen in Week Three. Additionally, she contributed 10 caused turnovers, 20 ground balls, and 20 draw controls.
2021 Season: Apuzzo finished third in the leaderboard standings with 1,685 points, including a league-high 560 stat points. She made the largest move on the leaderboard, going from No. 41 to No. 3 after Week One to Week Five. Apuzzo tied for the league lead with goalkeeper Caylee Waters with 255 MVP points and had seven game MVP honors, including four MVP 1 picks. She was one of two players to accrue 500 or more points in a single week and set a league season-high with 521 points in Week Five. Apuzzo scored at least one goal in all 15 games and led the league with 11 multi-goal efforts, including eight hat tricks. She led Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse with 36 goals and 91 shots and ranked second with 47 points. She also tied for eighth in the league with eight assists and ranked third with 47 draw controls. Apuzzo closed the season with six consecutive hat tricks and set a league season-high with 238 leaderboard points against Team Read. She had a five-goal and one-assist performance in an overtime loss to Team Wood, recording seven draw controls. She also had a season-high eight draw controls in Week Two against Team Treanor. Apuzzo attempted a league-high 12 shots against Team Arsenault, scoring three times with six draw controls. She scored the fastest goal to begin a game, just six seconds into the game against Team Ohlmiller. Apuzzo was the No. 2 overall selection in the inaugural Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse weekly draft.
International Experience: Apuzzo represented Team USA at the 2022 World Lacrosse Women's World Championship. She ranked fourth in the tournament with 14 assists and contributed 14 goals in eight games. She had six assists against Scotland and scored three goals with two assists in the Gold Medal Game victory against Canada. Apuzzo also trained for the 2015 United States Under-19 Team and made her debut with the Senior National Team at the 2018 President's Cup in Florida.
Other Professional Experience: Apuzzo spent two seasons with the New York Fight of the Women's Professional Lacrosse League. She was the first overall pick in the 2019 WPLL Draft by New York and scored eight goals with seven assists in 2019, adding eight draw controls.
At Boston College: Apuzzo started all 81 games for the Eagles from 2016-2019. She won the 2018 Tewaaraton and Honda Sport Awards and was a two-time Honda Sport Award for Lacrosse nominee. Apuzzo was a three-time nominee for the Tewaaraton Award, including being a finalist in 2018 and 2019. She received IWLCA All-America and All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team honors three times and was a two-time selection as IWLCA and ACC Attacker of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Apuzzo was a three-time member of the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team and was honored as the 2018 and 2019 ACC Women's Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She is Boston College's all-time leader with 283 career goals and 397 career points and ranks on the Eagles' career list with 114 assists. Apuzzo reached 100 career points in just 25 games, tying for the second-quickest in school history. She has three of the top single-season point totals at Boston College, including a school-record 129 points in 2018. Apuzzo scored 80 or more goals in a season three times and ranks second on the Eagles' single-season list with 94 goals in 2019. She also holds the Eagles' career draw controls record and set a school mark with 191 draw controls as a senior in 2019. Apuzzo is one of three players in school history with at least 100 draw controls in a single season. She had four games with 10 or more points, including a career-high nine goals against Navy in 2018. Apuzzo also set a Boston College single-game record with 17 draw controls against Louisville in 2018 and served as a team captain during the 2019 season.