VMI Lacrosse On The Upswing

All-American Helped Guide Keydets To Most Wins In 37 Years

The Virginia Military Institute men’s lacrosse team had one of its best seasons in program history this spring, going 10-4.

After VMI went 7-8 in 20224, the 10 wins this year were the most in a single season in 37 years, dating back to the 1988 season, when VMI won 11 games. VMI went 4-3 in the Northeast Conference, marking the first time the Keydets have earned a winning record playing in a conference.

This year’s senior class, which included 13 players, won 27 games for VMI over the past four seasons – all Division I wins. The most recent class to win that many games was the 1995 class, which totaled 27 wins, including 19 Division I wins.

Finishing the regular season as the second-ranked scoring offense in the NCAA, the Keydets registered 205 goals this season to set a new program benchmark for goals in a single season, beating the previous mark of 198 goals.

Leading the Keydets was senior attackman Luke Rusterucci, who was named an Honorable Mention All-American by USA Lacrosse in early May.

Rusterucci, who graduated in May after starting every single game during his four-year career for VMI, became the third Keydet in VMI’s 43-year program history to be named an All-American, joining Stephen Robarge (Third Team, 2012) and Tim Moran (Honorable Mention, 2010) as the only other Keydets to earn the rank.

Coming to VMI from Peachtree City, Ga., Rusterucci scored 42 goals – a career high – which marked the fifthhighest single-season total in VMI program history. He tallied 32 assists on the year – second highest in program history for a single season – to combine for 74 points, which broke the singleseason points record held by David Hope (72) from the 1988 season.

Rusterucci was the only Keydet in program history to reach the century mark in both career goals (125) and assists (109). He finished third in the NCAA this season in points per game at 5.29, and led VMI to the No. 2-ranked scoring offense in the nation at 14.64 goals per game, a new school single season record.

Rusterucci finished his VMI tenure with 125 career goals – second highest in program history – to go with 109 career assists, which is the highest career assists total by a large margin (85 by Robert Worrell from 1994-97 is the second-highest total). Worrell still holds the single-season record for assists. Rusterucci’s 234 combined career points rank second all-time in VMI history, behind only David Hope’s mark of 239 career points from 198689. He hit the 30-goal mark in back-to-back seasons, the first Keydet to do so in 25 years.

James Purpura, who was VMI’s head coach for the last five seasons before becoming Ohio State’s new men’s lacrosse offensive coordinator last month, said Rusterucci’s “recognition as a USA Lacrosse All-American is a tremendous honor and a testament to his work ethic, leadership and commitment to excellence on and off the field. … Luke has etched his name into our program’s legacy and set a new standard for what it means to be a Keydet.”

Rusterucci said he was grateful for Purpura, who earned the Nathaniel W. Pendleton 1922 Distinguished Coaching honor, and his assistant coaches. “All of our coaches helped us enjoy lacrosse,” said Ruserucci. “I’m going to be that alumnus pretty soon following all the stats.”

Another Keydet honored at the end of the season was senior defender James Boynewicz, who was awarded the Faculty Scholarship for Merit, recognizing academic performance by rising juniors and seniors. Boynewicz was VMI’s top defender with 26 caused turnovers and 21 groundballs.

Last week, the VMI men’s lacrosse team received Team All-Academic honors by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA). In order to achieve the status, the program must hold a team cumulative GPA of 3.0, which the Keydets surpassed with an impressive 3.2 team GPA for the 2024-25 academic year. The Keydets are one of just 34 NCAA Division I programs to achieve the team academic award and one of only two teams from the Northeast Conference to attain the recognition.

Rusterucci is grateful for his scholarship donor, Carolyn Worrell, mother of Robert. “She’s a big reason I’m at VMI,” he said. “She’s a fundamental part of our team. She’s a big supporter of our program.”

In addition to earning All-American honors, Rusterucci was selected to compete in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-Star Game in late May, as was VMI senior goalie Damian Levin. Becoming a starter for VMI as a senior, Levin made the most of it by achieving a .599 save percentage – third best in the NCAA –- to go with 14.07 saves per game, the fifthbest mark in the country.

Rusterucci was one of three VMI cadet-athletes across all sports to be honored with the Intercollegiate Sports Awards given for all-round excellence in intercollegiate athletics.

In May, before commissioning into the Florida National Guard, Rusterucci shared his thoughts on his career and his senior season with the Keydets. “I’m super fortunate to be part of this group,” he said. “There’s a certain part of me that wishes I had another four years.”

Growing up in Georgia, Rusterucci had planned to stay close to home and go to Mercer University. He played all four years for Starr’s Mill High School in Peachtree, Ga. When it came to choosing colleges, though, the culture and structure at VMI appealed to him. “I think VMI sets you up for life, especially being a student-athlete,” said Rusterucci. “I’ve got to get my schoolwork done because we’re going on the road.”

VMI is very disciplined, Rusterucci noted, but he was grateful he was “taught the VMI way. Sometimes, not the most friendly of manners, being yelled at. These past four years, I’ve made nothing but close friends. We’ve had shared suffering.”

A special game this past spring was when the Keydets won 14-11 at Mercer on Feb. 15, with Rusterucci scoring five goals in the stadium he watched many games in as a fan.

Rusterucci is the first member of his family to play lacrosse, though two of his younger cousins have picked up the sport. His father, Rob, grew up in New York and watched the sport. Both Rob and Luke’s mother, Diane, have been supportive throughout Rusterucci’s college career.

Looking to his future, Rusterucci is keeping his options open. He was a business and economics major at VMI. In May, he was hoping to become an aviator for the National Guard and had longterm goals of becoming a commercial pilot.

Outside of work, Rusterucci hopes to continue to play lacrosse in some capacity. He’s helped coach club lacrosse in Georgia and could see himself continuing to coach in the future as well.

Wherever he is, Rusterucci said he plans to continue to support VMI lacrosse and hopes that his records are broken in the future. “I’m a very competitive person, don’t get me wrong, but I want great players to come in and break my records.,” he said.

“We’ve shown VMI in a great light and raised the standard of what VMI lacrosse was,” added Rusterucci. “I hope those records that I broke inspire people. I want people to break those.”