When Emily Messinese, Navy's senior star attacker, was named a co-captain prior to her final season in a Navy uniform, that high honor verified what had been a highly foregone conclusion.
 
When one hears the perspectives of coaches and players regarding what Messinese has meant to the Navy program, they voice a compelling case. They speak of a young lady who clearly was born to lead others. Even as one of the team's younger talents, Messinese had that piece in her personality.
 
"It seems like Emily has always been in charge. I remember when I was a plebe, hearing upperclassmen talk about her [as a sophomore], saying Emily already was a leader," said Ava Yovino, a junior midfielder.
 
"This team trusts her so much. Her level of loyalty to us and what we stand for is unmatched," she added. "I admire her no-quit mentality, not just as a teammate but as a friend. She stands up for [younger] players who really don't have a voice on the team. Emily is the most competitive person I have met. And she can be an absolute goofball. It has really been a privilege to be by her side for three years."
 
"[Messinese] is a very strong character, in all of the good ways. I've never seen a leader like her in my life," added freshman attacker Alyssa Chung, who happens to be Navy's goal-scoring leader.
 
"There is a lot weighing on you during plebe year. I can go to [Messinese] if I'm struggling with something, and get her honest opinion. She gives it to me straight," Chung added. "There can be a divide sometimes between upper- and underclassmen in [Bancroft Hall], but the captains [including senior Lola Leone] make sure we're looking out for each other. You can rely on Emily Mess. Obviously, [on the field] she has ice in her veins."
 
"I'm in denial that [Messinese] is a senior and has to graduate at some point," said Brooke Shriver, the Mids' fourth-year assistant and current offensive coordinator.  "She loves and thrives in pressure moments. I would hate to have to mark her," she added. "Sometimes we have to make her take a drill off in practice, since we can't convince her to go at 50 percent. Every day she really brings that energy, that speed, that physicality. I remind our defenders [in practice] that 'Mess' is making each of you better – even if she is toasting you."
 
Messinese, who next month will be commissioned a Naval Officer and soon will begin training to become a Navy pilot, has earned a ton of respect. And not just because she plays with such controlled aggression – as a dodger, a shooter, a rider and a key contributor on the draw circle.
 
Throughout her time in Annapolis – starting with a season-ending ACL injury she suffered against St. Joseph's during her fifth game as a freshman – Messinese has been a picture of high-level skills, next-level toughness and a model of dependable preparation and production.
 
Beginning with her comeback season in the spring of 2023, Messinese's consistency has been her calling card. Over the past three seasons as a starter, she has recorded at least one point in every game, and has scored at least a goal in 50 of 51 games.
 
As a sophomore and junior, Messinese led the Mids in goals, combining for 117 scores, while dishing out a combined 30 assists and recording a combined 24 hat tricks. She was the team's points leader in 2024 with 86. She also combined for 126 draw controls over the previous two seasons.
 
Messinese twice has earned First-Team All-Patriot League and Patriot League All-Tournament honors and was selected Honorable Mention All-American by USA Lacrosse Magazine and Inside Lacrosse in 2024. She was included by IWLCA on the All-Mid-Atlantic Region's Second Team.
 
Heading into Saturday's showdown at archrival Army West Point, she leads Navy with 50 points, including a team-high 17 assists.
 
Her 33 goals are second to Chung's team-high 40 scores and just ahead of sophomore midfielder Mikayla Williams (32). Each teammate has benefitted from Messinese's role as a distributor, who has encountered her share of face-guarding by opposing defenses this year.
 
Messinese, who earned four letters and starred in lacrosse and soccer at Gerstell Academy in Finksburg, Md., gives credit to her father for instilling her work ethic, feeding her intensity on the field and for her choice to play lacrosse at a service academy.
 
Joseph Messinese, Jr. is a United States Marine Corps veteran. He coached Emily and her sister, Lauren (one year older, now a fifth-year defender at Rutgers) in lacrosse and soccer during their elementary school years, before both daughters joined the Skywalkers club team early in middle school.
 
"The hustle, never-give-up mentality was an intangible lesson taught to us by our dad. Once we got to Skywalkers, we built on that. Coaches really emphasized effort, hustle, attitude," Messinese said.
 
"You can always get better with your stickwork or shooting. You can always watch more film to understand the game better," she added. "But those intangibles are so important. If the team needs a goal, you put your head down, with the attitude that we are going to score. There is no other option."
 
Messinese scored in such a scenario on the evening of March 26, against visiting rival Loyola, in the final seconds of regulation, nearly three hours into what became a 20-19 Greyhounds victory in overtime.
 
The Mids, who eliminated Loyola in back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 2017 and '18 – the first of which launched Navy toward its first-ever final four appearance – came very close to being the first Patriot League squad to hand the Greyhounds their first regular-season conference loss since Loyola joined the Patriot League in 2013.
 
Messinese, who had been face-guarded all evening, produced another signature career moment, with four seconds left in regulation.
 
Operating from behind the Navy goal, Messinese dodged her way to the top of the crease, where she switched her stick from left hand to right, then used a twisting jump shot to dump the game-tying score in the lower left corner to beat Greyhounds goalie Lauren Spence.
 
"I was watching that game with my teammates in our locker room. We were going crazy, screaming," Lauren Messinese said. "[Emily] was not going to let Navy lose the game on that play."
 
"That took guts, and it was a brilliant take. But that's what you get from Emily Mess," said Navy head coach Cindy Timchal. "What a weapon she is for us."
 
"The only option was to go hard, rely on the muscle memory of dodging from behind the goal, and get between the pipes and shoot," said Messinese who had backed up errant shots by teammates Williams and Taylor Miles before finding the back of the Loyola net. "I don't know if I've ever tried that [type of shot] in practice. It definitely was not scripted."
 
"She shows her character in those situations," said Joseph Messinese, who recalled how his daughter, in last year's Patriot League tournament title game loss to Loyola, put the Mids on her back with a five-goal performance. She scored back-to-back goals late in the fourth quarter to tie the contest at 11-11.
 
Loyola pulled out a 12-11 victory to grab an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament, while Navy was shockingly left out of the tournament as an at-large team.
 
Yet the most stirring game in the collegiate journey of Messinese was created last year on April 13, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, where Navy tangled with Army and clinched the overall Star Series with a 17-11 victory. Messinese scored three goals, produced an assist and came up with four draw controls that day.
 
After scoring two first-half goals to help the Mids get off to a good start, the game changed dramatically for Messinese late in the half. As she was about to exploit an opening in the Black Knights defense and headed hard for the Army goal, a Black Knights defender offered resistance with a wild check that hit Messinese squarely in the mouth.
 
The illegal blow – which incredibly drew no foul call – took out part of her tooth and split open her lips. Messinese bled profusely.
 
"I remember my lip bleeding and I could feel that half of my tooth was gone," she recalled. "I was kind of in shock."
 
Within a week, a picture of Messinese's bloody face was displayed at King Hall, the academy's dining facility. It serves as an example of true toughness for the Brigade of Midshipmen.
 
Messinese's sister and parents, Belinda and Joseph, hustled to the halftime locker room to check up on their wounded family member.
 
"I was standing next to another [player's] Dad in the stands when it happened, and he said 'That doesn't look good.' I told him, 'Nah, she'll be all right.' That was the Marine in me coming out," Joseph Messinese recalled.
 
By the time the family reached the locker room, the father could hear the daughter lobbying the team doctor to help her get back to the field to rejoin the battle and help finish off the Black Knights. Mikayla Williams had found her partial tooth on the field. That meant the tooth could be glued together – by none other than her sponsor family's father, who happens to be an orthodontist.
 
Lauren Messinese recalled her mother gasping at the sight of Emily's bloody mouth, as her daughter expressed her desire to get back to the field for the start of the second half.
 
"Emily was saying, 'I'm still good to play, right?' This is the biggest game of the year. I can get back out there, right? This [injury] doesn't matter," Lauren Messinese said.
 
"I just smiled. It goes back to the military mentality," Joseph Messinese said. "Get the mission done. Whatever it takes."
 
So, after the team doctor applied a stitch to her upper and lower lips, Emily Messinese was released. She charged out of the Navy locker room and on to the field -- to a roaring crowd of about 2,500 – as the teams were lining up for the second half opening draw.
 
Messinese replaced her backup and won that draw. She would score her third goal of the day to help salt away a very satisfying win.
 
"What has always driven Emily is her will to win," Lauren Messinese said. "She would bulldoze soccer defenders. She will put her body on the line to score a goal on a lacrosse field, whatever it takes. When she was little, she was like a bull in a china closet, always driving hard and being aggressive, no matter what."
 
It makes perfect sense that Messinese ended up in the Brigade of Midshipmen. She drew serious interest from an array of high-level Division I schools, including Maryland, USC, Yale and Boston College.
 
She unofficially visited Navy several times, starting with a general Naval Academy tour. She had attended multiple lacrosse camps at the school. By the time July 1, 2021 rolled around – service academies are allowed to begin recruiting high school juniors two months earlier than the rest of Division I schools – Messinese was hooked on the idea of joining the Midshipmen.
 
"When we had our second meeting, Cindy [Timchal] told her she was offering Emily a spot,' Joseph Messinese said. "As we're walking back to the car after that visit, Emily said, 'I'm done. We can turn around [and commit]. This is where I want to go. I don't need to think about it anymore."
 
By early August, heading into her junior year at Gerstell Academy, Messinese committed to Navy.
 
"I knew there wasn't going to be another school that could match Navy," she said.
 
"To see her go through four years here and develop her own style and personality and to see her progress becoming a leader, it's all been very interesting," Joseph Messinese said. "I'm very proud of her toughness and her commitment."
 
"Being one of our captains defines who Emily is. She performs every day at the highest level," Timchal said. "She brings the energy and competitiveness to every practice. Emily is not going to back down. You can count on her to challenge anybody. It's not about her athleticism as much as it's about her heart and how deeply she cares about this team."