This prep lacrosse star has won all there is to win. And she won’t stop. (2024)

She recorded more points over two seasons than anyone in program history and has been committed to play at Northwestern, the defending NCAA champion and a perennial powerhouse, since 2022. But here she is, in the late stages of another Falcons’ blowout win, racing after a groundball.

Her hustle changed little but the winning margin in Good Counsel’s 23-7 bludgeoning of Bishop Ireton on April 19. The win improved the Falcons to 16-0, a record that reveals part of Rudolph’s lingering chase: Her team is trying to secure the program’s first undefeated season. But her motivation goes beyond those numbers.

“I love playing with the girls on my team and they never fail to make the sport exciting,” Rudolph said. “And I think that’s why I love it. I mean, I still get nervous before every game and everybody still gets excited after every goal. So I don’t think it’ll ever get boring.”

The rout of Ireton, under gray skies and spotty rain, tested that approach. Rudolph scored the game’s first two goals as the Falcons took a 4-0 lead. Ireton, looking for an upset, responded with a five-goal run.

Falcons sophom*ore attacker Annabelle Walsh tied the game and Rudolph followed with two more goals. She barely celebrated after the first — instead, she gingerly held her mouth, which had been whacked by a stick. The Falcons went into halftime holding a tenuous two-goal advantage.

Rudolph stood behind Coach Michael Haight in the Good Counsel huddle. Her face shifted with Haight’s words, bearing the mask of a steely, solemn competitor while the coach outlined his team’s first-half issues but softening into a smile when he later implored them to enjoy themselves.

“If somebody is going to look at me in the huddle, they’re going to know I’m paying attention, that I value what Coach Haight is saying,” said Rudolph afterward, nursing a bruised lip. “But then at the end, he always reminds us that this is a game that we love. … So I just smile to be able to make everyone else remember that too.”

It’s a dominant personality trait for Rudolph. Her mother, Andrea, calls her “my little glowbug.”

“She’s always smiling,” Andrea said. “There’s always that inner light to be on whether you’re having a good day or bad day.”

That joy coexists with a fierce competitiveness that was fostered in the family.

Her sister, Madeleine, was a senior on the Falcons’ 2022 WCAC title team and has long been Rudolph’s mentor and motivator.

When Rudolph was about 3, the family vacationed on Long Beach Island, N.J. Madeleine knew how to surf. Hannah, wanting to be like her older sister, demanded to learn. Even the low tides and placid waves remained a formidable foe for the toddler, sending her repeatedly crashing into the surf.

Resolute, she picked herself up, shaking off the sand each time.

“She wouldn’t let you touch her. … I could hold the back of the board, but she had to really do it herself,” Andrea said.

When Hannah eventually mastered the waves, rolling into shore with her arms in the air, her glow returned.

“You couldn’t take the smile on her face for the rest of the day,” Andrea said.

That smile was evident as Good Counsel erupted against Ireton, scoring 13 unanswered goals. Rudolph finished with a team-high seven.

“When Hannah wants a score … there’s a fire in her eyes. She lights up, she asks for the ball … it’s not selfish or anything,” Walsh said. “It’s just something within her that drives her spirit to be better, better than everyone else, rise above the standard.”

Walsh developed into Rudolph’s offensive partner midway through last season, filling the void left after Madeleine’s graduation. The pair’s breakthrough came in a win over Severna Park, the eventual Maryland 3A state champion. Before the game, Rudolph pulled Walsh aside.

“She grabbed my shoulders and was just like: ‘Hey, you got this. And I know that you’re here for a reason,’ ” Walsh recalled. “That coming from her just lit something up inside of me to want to be as good as her and do what she’s been doing. … Her words just spoke so much to me.”

Walsh, then a freshman, went on to score three times in a two-goal win. She finished the year with 49 goals, a Good Counsel freshman record.

Rudolph might have broken that record if her freshman season hadn’t been canceled because of the pandemic. She scored 85 goals in her first high school season as a sophom*ore, finishing with six in the 2022 WCAC championship game. She took a week off to let herself experience the joy from the title.

But one day into her break, Rudolph was in bed imagining the trophy ceremony and the celebration. A nagging desire to repeat crept in.

“It’s never enough,” Good Counsel senior defender Hailey Huebner said. “There’s no limit to what she wants to be. She doesn’t care if no one else is even close to her. She still wants to be better.”

Although Rudolph can seem impenetrable — “there’s never been a time where I was like, ‘Hannah’s having an off day,’ ” Huebner said — she has pushed through setbacks.

Rudolph didn’t receive a callback after trying out for the U.S. under-16 national development team in 2021. She was disappointed, Andrea said, but used it along with detailed feedback to improve. A year later, Rudolph’s parents asked her whether she wanted to try out for the under-18 squad. She did, and made it.

She faced another choice last summer: try out again for the under-18 team or shoot for the under-20 team. The latter path would pit her against college players.

Naturally, she took it.

Over three intense July days in Sparks, Md., Rudolph’s head was spinning as she faced off against nearly 100 of the nation’s best players. She left the tryouts with an excess of learning moments but also a spot on the training squad after the cut reduced the number of players remaining to 42, leaving her as just one of five returning high-schoolers. She is waiting to find out whether she make the final roster that will compete in the 2024 World Lacrosse women’s under-20 championship.

Until then, she will continue writing the final act of a storied career. Rudolph is in fervent pursuit of an undefeated season and a WCAC three-peat, the next accomplishments in her constant chase for more.