After two injury-plagued seasons to begin her collegiate career, redshirt junior guard Lexie Tarul gained a fresh start when she transferred to Marist. Now, in her second year with the Red Foxes, Tarul has not only managed to stay on the court but has also become one of the most impactful players on the team.
As the second leading scorer on the team through 18 games this season, Tarul has discovered strong comfort with the Marist program after overcoming adversity and adapting to a new environment in Poughkeepsie.
“It was about finding myself as a basketball player again,” said Tarul. “I kind of lost myself while I was injured. I didn’t really know what I was good at anymore, I didn’t know if my knee was gonna feel the same ever again and I didn’t know if I was gonna play the same ever again. But when I came here for my visit, I found that fire in myself again and I was thinking ‘I can do this.’”
Tarul’s love for basketball began at age five, and her father contributed to her early start. Later, she discovered her ability to shoot the ball and changed her shot form in seventh grade before attending St. John’s Prep in Queens, New York.
Tarul played under head coach Mike Locascio in her four years at St. John’s Prep, scoring her 1,000th career point in her junior season. The guard tirelessly worked on her craft and shooting ability to become the lethal threat from beyond the arc that she is today.
“Before college, it was all about just putting in the work,” said Tarul. “I think something that can never be taken away from me is how hard I work and continue to do that here.”
That relentless work earned Tarul the attention of a plethora of Division I schools, including the Fordham Rams out of the Atlantic 10 Conference, where she ultimately decided to play.
Her time at Fordham did not go as planned. Injuries, including a torn ACL, kept her off the court for all but two games during her two seasons with the program. Ultimately, leaving Fordham was a decision Tarul felt she needed to make.
“I don’t think staying there was the best decision for me overall,” said Tarul. “I had been through three coaches in two years and a lot of my teammates were also leaving so it was just a lot of changing. The school felt different, the program felt different and it just wasn’t the same place I had fallen in love with when I first picked it.”
Tarul found a way to turn those negatives into a positive. Being forced to spend her time off the court, she discovered a new way to appreciate the game without playing.
“Being injured helped me learn to love the game from a different aspect,” said Tarul. “My whole life I was playing and doing stuff on the court, but then when I was injured I had no choice but to learn from the sidelines. I was struggling with it at the time, but eventually, I started to love seeing it from a different perspective. I enjoy breaking things down not only on the court as a player but also seeing it from another point of view and my injury allowed me to do so.”
Tarul carried that new perspective and the rest of her belongings to Marist in 2023— a move that made sense for both sides. Joining recently hired head coach Erin Doughty allowed Tarul to reset and focus on recovering from her injuries.
As Marist entered a new era under Doughty, perimeter shooting was a top priority. The previous season saw the Red Foxes finish ninth in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) in 3-point percentage and 10th in 3-pointers made.
Another factor that sparked Marist’s interest in Tarul was a prior connection, typical of most women’s basketball transfers. Doughty’s batch of transfers have typically been looked at in high school by the coaching staff. This was the case with Tarul and assistant coach Nick Volchok, who knew the guard from her days at St. John’s Prep.
Doughty spent a day with Tarul and her family and the guard even played pickup with the team. It was evident how Tarul instantly meshed with the players on the court and Doughty knew it was the right fit.
Year one at Marist was a solid debut from Tarul, finishing third on the team in points per game with 7.3 and leading the team in 3-pointers made with 52. With the top two scorers set to depart following the 2023-24 season, Tarul was poised for a larger role in her second year with the Red Foxes.
The guard developed her defensive game, as she has already improved her block total from one last season to nine this year and increased her steal total from 13 to 18. Tarul has also strengthened her offensive arsenal, creating more opportunities for herself than just behind the arc.
“The biggest area in which she improved is defensively,” said Doughty. “She put herself in better shape to be able to defend, learned how to use angles and scout to learn how to defend someone. She’s also expanded her game a little bit. Last year most of her shots were three’s and this year she’s done more off the dribble in terms of stepbacks and pull-ups. She’s also gotten better at cutting to get some layups both in motion and from backdoor cuts since people deny her so heavily.”
Having a larger role with the team required trust from the coaching staff and, more importantly, Tarul to trust herself. As one of the go-to players when they need a basket, Tarul must be confident in her ability to knock down those shots.
“We’ve had to work on that [confidence] with Lexie,” said Doughty. “She’ll get in her own head a little bit and miss a couple and not want to take more, but we just tell her that she’s put in the work, they’re going to start falling. Late game when we’ve needed a bucket she’s knocked them down. There’s no one we trust more in that situation so I think that helps with her confidence.”
Tarul’s growing confidence has been evident this year, increasing her scoring average to 11.8 points per game, ranking 14th in 3-point percentage at 33.1% and averaging the fifth most in 3-pointers per game at 2.2 among all MAAC players.
Behind Tarul’s impressive performance is a consistent and distinct pregame ritual that helps fuel her success.
“I always take a pregame shower,” said Tarul. “I love to take a hot shower before the game. Then after a pregame meal, I chill in the locker room and get taped up before shooting with coach Nick and some of the other girls on the team. And then for away games I try to be the first one taped and then go out there and get up some extra shots beforehand. Oh, and I put my right sock on before my left every time.”
Off the court, Tarul’s impact has been just as significant. Since arriving at Marist, nine players have entered the program while six players left last season. Tarul recognizes that to combat inevitable college roster turnover, building team chemistry on the court starts with what happens off the court.
“We’ve tried to do more activities as a team,” said Tarul. “We have a basketball house this year which has been good…[having] that space where we can all hang out outside of McCann, which is a spot where we’re identified as basketball players. Being together outside of basketball allows us to be humans again and have that relationship where we are learning about each other off the court.”
Coaches and teammates certainly speak highly of Tarul as a player and equally as much of her as a person. She stays locked in on the court but has a silly personality and cares for her teammates off the court. Tarul is also known as the team chef, as she loves to cook and bake.
“I would say I’m super goofy,” said Tarul. “I love to have fun, love to laugh. I’m very serious on the court but then I have the times where I can be goofy out there.”
Home games allow Tarul to perform in front of Marist fans, including younger girls who aspire to play at the next level. One fan who caught her attention last season was a girl named McKenzie who would always be cheering and smiling on the sidelines, so Tarul made it a point to acknowledge her before every game.
“She would be so happy so I would high-five her before every game,” said Tarul. “I kind of formed a connection with her mom and she’ll DM me on Instagram. I just think that it goes so far beyond basketball and there is so much impact that you can have on people’s lives. I would always look forward to seeing her in the stands because she would be so excited to come over and hug me, so it’s pretty cool having those moments with fans.”
As Tarul’s second season with Marist unfolds, her role remains significant as a player and a person. By overcoming adversity, performing at a high level and building relationships with both teammates and fans, her response to the difficult start of her collegiate career has been truly resilient — with plenty more to come.
Edited by Hayden Shapiro and Aiden Lavin
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photos from Marist Athletics
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