Last of a ‘dying breed’: How Xander Dickson is keeping the crease attack position alive

When Connor Shellenberger broke onto the college lacrosse scene in 2021 by leading Virginia to a national championship, Xander Dickson was left wondering what the future would hold for him.

An X attackman throughout his career, Dickson had spent his first two seasons at UVA playing as an invert midfielder, channeling his strengths as a dodger and facilitator behind the goal while hoping to move down to attack as an upperclassman. But Shellenberger’s emergence as the conductor of the UVA offense put Dickson’s place into question.

“Oh boy, I’m never going to beat this guy at that spot,” he thought to himself.

Rather than stubbornly shoot to challenge Shellenberger to play X attack or resort to being an invert option for the remainder of his career, Dickson saw an opportunity to adjust his playing style under the tutelage of Virginia’s offensive coordinator and off-ball savant, Sean Kirwan.

Ian Laviano – who’d made a living for UVA as a righty crease attackman – graduated in 2021 with 122 career goals. He’d been the righty finisher in the Virginia offense across his four years and paired perfectly with Payton Cormier on the lefty side in 2021.

Virginia entered the 2022 season needing a new off-ball righty to complement Cormier, and Dickson stepped up to the plate. He fully embraced playing on and around the crease, turning to Kirwan to learn the nuances of a new role.

“He opened up this whole different world that I didn’t really know existed,” Dickson said, “in terms of body deception and shooting angles and how to cut strategically and mess up defensive slides. Watching film with him, I was picking up on things I’d never paused to think about.”

Dickson put up 31 goals in his junior season before making the move down to attack full-time as a senior and promptly breaking Virginia’s single-season goals record with 61 in 17 games. Rather than competing with Shellenberger for playing time, he became No. 1’s favorite target.

“What I’ll give him the most credit for is his patience through everything,” Kirwan said. “Xander quickly rose to the top as far as his ability to do it.”

Dickson was the premier off-ball threat in the 2023 College Draft, and was the perfect fit for a New York Atlas offense that was searching for an inside finisher to pair with Jeff Teat.

“The whole theory behind it was, if we got Teat, Teat needs a great inside finisher that can catch and shoot, that he can feed,” Atlas offensive coordinator Steven Brooks said.

Dickson has been just that through three seasons with New York. He notched 20 points (14G, 6A) as a rookie playing midfield before moving down to attack alongside Teat and his former college teammate, Shellenberger, in 2024.

Dickson leads the PLL in assisted goals (61) since he entered the league and is first in assisted shots over the last two years (117). 89.9% of his career shots have been assisted, which is second among players averaging at least two shots per game since 2022.

“He’s the best off-ball player in the world, for sure,” Shellenberger said.

Statistically, Dickson has been the most productive. But he’s also become the only true starting crease attackman in the league. Of players regularly in their team’s 19-man roster, Dickson is the only one whose average shooting distance is within eight yards and who is assisted on at least 70% of his shots.

“It’s a little bit of a dying breed,” Kirwan said. “Jake [Taylor] and Xander have been able to give us a little bit of a renaissance there, at that position. But it’s still not the most common position.”

Taylor – selected ninth overall in the 2025 College Draft by the Philadelphia Waterdogs – started for Philly for nine games this summer before head coach Bill Tierney took the off-ball wizard out of the lineup and replaced him with CJ Kirst. That’s left Dickson as the only crease attackman holding out to prove the value of off-ball play in the PLL.

“It’s becoming a lost art, unfortunately,” Brooks said.

In recent years, PLL offenses have favored on-ball matchup beaters and time-and-room step-down shooters over crease threats. Gone are the days of Jay Carlson patrolling the crease, dunking feeds from Matt Rambo on the Whipsnakes’ championship offenses.

Instead, attack lines often feature three dodgers who can score for themselves and pose matchup problems for opposing defenses. The three-headed monster of Kirst, Michael Sowers and Kieran McArdle is one example. The California Redwoods’ trio of Ryder Garnsey, Chris Kavanagh and Dylan Molloy is another.

If offenses don’t have three dodgers at attack, then they start a step-down shooter who can stretch defenses on the perimeter. That’s what Logan Wisnauskas brings to the Denver Outlaws, what Mac O’Keefe provides for the Utah Archers and what Marcus Holman does for the Boston Cannons. Those are the most frequently assisted shooters in the league alongside Dickson.

But, while those players operate on the wings, Dickson buzzes around the crease. His average shot distance is 6.8 yards, whereas those three all shoot from 9.9 yards and beyond on average.

The value and threat of the two-point line is real – that’s part of why offenses favor off-ball threats who stretch the field. Whether they’re converting on twos or not, the mere prospect of the long ball creates space for dodgers to operate and score for themselves.

Yet, while other teams run crease guys out of the box, keep them on the reserve roster or avoid adding them altogether, the Atlas have thrived with Dickson at attack. New York leads the league in scoring by a wide margin since grouping the Dickson-Shellenberger-Teat trio together.

Why does the crease attack position fit the New York offense?

“It works for us because we have a two-quarterback system,” Brooks said. “Both guys are capable of feeding, but they’re also capable of scoring just as well as they can feed.”

Shellenberger and Teat are unquestionably two of the best feeders in the game. They finished tied for second league-wide in assists with 23 in the regular season and were third and fourth, respectively, in assist rate. No other team in the league had two players with 15 assists apiece.

Shellenberger and Dickson have been the most productive feeder-scorer duo in the league this season, with Shellenberger assisting Dickson on 10 goals. Teat and Dickson are not far behind in third place with eight.

“I have Jeff Teat and Connor Shellenberger around me who are both such well-rounded players, but also such amazing feeders,” Dickson said. “I think it’s just sort of a good fit to have one off-ball guy in there to allow them to be at their best. … It’s hard to thrive in that off-ball role if you’re not seeing the ball a ton and getting a ton of touches.”

The Atlas’  offense is built around ball movement and assisted shots. 46.8% of New York’s shots this season have been assisted — the highest mark in the league. The team buries a league-high 40.2% of those looks.

While New York’s dual-quarterback approach helps Dickson finish, its double crease is often what gets him open in the first place.

“If you just have one inside guy, it’s easy to eliminate them,” Brooks said. “But when you can get two inside guys … I think that’s where it gets really tough for teams to have to defend.”

Reid Bowering and Jake Stevens are Dickson’s partners in crime on the inside. Those three constantly pick for one another, cutting in tandem to distract defenders, open passing lanes and create space.

“When you have one guy inside and five guys on the perimeter, there’s less room for those perimeter guys to operate,” Kirwan explained. “Whereas, when you have two inside, there’s plenty of space for them to operate together, but then it opens up a lot of space for the guys on the perimeter as well.”

Dickson has been playing with a partner on the crease for years. It’s a staple of Kirwan’s offensive scheme. Playing with Bowering and Stevens has come naturally.

Their priority when working together on the inside is to take one of their defenders out of the play. That could be via a pick, a seal or even a hard cut.

Stevens and Dickson – a pair of righties – typically work to open each other up to cut to their strong hand. That often results in parallel cuts to Teat on the opposite wing, with one flashing to the high crease and the other cutting low.

They connected for a score against Philadelphia as Stevens came over to set a pick on Dickson’s defender. Dickson cut hard off Stevens’ hip, pulling his defender with him and drawing the eyes of Stevens’ man.

Seeing that Stevens’ defender was slightly caught up on the pick, Dickson’s defender pointed and called for a switch. Stevens recognized that, though, and immediately slipped the screen, cutting diagonally to the near post and flashing his stick to Teat carrying up the lefty wing.

Bowering and Dickson – a lefty and a righty – operate very similarly but with slight adjustments that favor Bowering cutting to his strong hand. In a nearly identical action to the play above, Bowering set a pick for Dickson as Teat carried upfield. He made slight, but sufficient contact with Dickson’s defender to force him to look for a switch.

That split second of indecision opened Dickson up to catch and rake.

New York spams this action particularly when Teat gets a pick on the lefty wing and floats up top, or when Shellenberger is dodging from behind the cage.

The Atlas’ three inside players have mastered where their two signal-callers like to feed.

“Jeff’s really good at the lever passes,” Dickson said. “Shelly’s really good at getting to X, stopping on a dime and floating one over the crossbar. So, you just learn all their tendencies.”

Dickson has been instrumental in communicating those tendencies to Stevens and Bowering as they’ve joined the team over the last two seasons.

While the where is important, the when is also crucial in these scenarios.

“The timing is key,” Dickson explained. “Getting open in the right moment, the timing of that. You don’t want to get open too early, when their hands aren’t ready to go.”

“Timing is everything,” Brooks added. “If you go too early on a cut, you’re going to catch the ball. Next thing you know, you’re at GLE and you have no angle. If you’re too late for a cut, you’re going to get your hands chopped.”

Across their five years playing together, Shellenberger and Dickson have mastered the timing of feeding and cutting. That’s never been more apparent than on the shot clock buzzer-beating goal they connected on in the regular-season finale.

Shellenberger got a razor pick from Bowering at goal line extended. Simultaneously, Teat set a pick for Dickson, and they each cut off of it in a scissors motion with Dickson cutting to the far pipe and Teat flashing to the near one. Philly played it well, though, switching and chopping down on Dickson’s hands as Shellenberger brought his stick up to feed.

The pair adjusted, with Shellenberger taking a glance at the shot clock before carrying to his right. Dickson turned back, stepping toward Bowering, who was ready to pick off Dickson’s defender. Right as Dickson’s defender started to look to switch, Dickson turned on a dime and flashed his stick to Shellenberger – who’d had his eyes up and on Dickson the entire time.

“Shelly and Dickson have some type of connectivity that nobody can see,” Brooks said. “They’re very close with one another, and I think that also goes a long way.”

Those two have been scoring on that same Dickson cut to the back pipe for years now. Their familiarity with each other unlocks parts of their games that wouldn’t be as effective playing with anyone else. It’s a major factor in New York’s success with starting a crease attackman.

“Getting to play with one of your best friends is pretty special, especially in the pros,” Shellenberger said. “I’m really lucky that I have him to make me look good and we get to keep doing this together.”

But, even beyond Dickson’s cohesion with Shellenberger and Teat and his partners in crime on the crease, his well-rounded skill set and tactical acumen distinguish him from others in the same mold.

“I think where Dickson separates himself from everybody else in the league is that he’s not just a crease guy,” Brooks said. “He knows the pick and roll. He can dodge shorties. He’s creative around the crease. He can do more than just being that inside guy. And I think that’s where he has the most success.”

Dickson doesn’t need a pick off-ball to create offense. He dodges without the ball in his stick, baiting defenders and turning on a dime right when one of his teammates is looking to feed. Watch him put his defender in a blender on the bottom right of the screen:

He also opens dodging lanes for his teammates because of how he both draws attention and moves to space.

“A lot of people think that the inside position is just about scoring goals,” Dickson said. “But I think the bigger part of it is how much you can mess up the defense, how much room you can create for your dodgers. I think it all goes hand in hand.”

Matt Traynor dodged out of the box in the semifinals. Dickson’s defender was the hot defender, and Dickson knew it.

He patiently watched Traynor try to muscle through his defender. The moment he saw Traynor start to get leverage to the inside, he cut to the backside, thereby clearing the middle of the field and letting Traynor get to the goal unimpeded by a slide.

Sometimes Dickson clears space dramatically. Other times, one or two steps is enough to get someone’s hands free.

He gave Traynor another clear path to the goal against the Waterdogs. Right when Traynor switched from his right to his left hand, Dickson took two steps to his right. That meant his defender made one shuffle in his direction and took himself out of position to slide.

“I can tell when my defender’s antsy,” Dickson said. “I can tell when my defender is the hot guy or the two slide. If he’s the hot guy, just get a piece of him. Hold his stick, keep him away from that play and give whoever it is dodging room to go.”

To counter the impact that crease attackmen like Dickson have, defenses will often short-stick them, especially in the postseason. That puts the onus on Dickson to win matchups.

He answers that challenge by being even more of an off-ball nuisance. Without a six-foot pole that can get on his hands from further away, Dickson thrives.

“A short stick has to be so hyper aware, because he’s got no room for error that a pole might have right,” Kirwan said. “A pole could be a step slow and still use a stick to catch up. With a short stick, you just lose that room for error, and Xander does a great job of taking advantage.”

Dickson’s rebound behind-the-back goal against Philly came because he got a short stick on his back, where he couldn’t make a play on the ball.

While Dickson’s cut to the ball didn’t result in a feed, as Hugh Kelleher loaded up for two, it gave him a jump on the rebound as he scooped up the ball out of reach of the short-stick defender and put the ball in the back of the net.

Dickson is also comfortable working in the two-man game on-ball when he gets a short-stick matchup. He did so seamlessly with Teat on the lefty wing versus the Dogs.

Teat rejected Dickson’s pick and drew the attention of Dickson’s man. Because No. 10 maintained his spacing and stayed high, he was shot ready when Teat turned and recognized that Dickson’s defender was out of position.

Paired with everything Dickson has picked up about working off-ball since he started at the Kirwan School of Crease Play are his elite hands and wrists that can finish just about anything his teammates feed him.

“He makes me look really good,” Shellenberger laughed.

“I haven’t seen anybody move and handle the ball and release shots the way he does ever,” Brooks said. “He can catch anything. He can take a beating, but the ball is going to wind up in the back of the net no matter how many times you kick his ass.”

“It’s really hard to teach somebody hands and catching the ball. That’s something that’s got to be almost innate,” Kirwan said. “He’s got unbelievable hands, which is such a huge trait that you need to be a crease guy.”

Dickson has all the tools that are required to be an elite crease attackman. But he’s so much more than the traditional finisher who merely beats the second slide to the ball. He’s versatile and selfless in how he operates off the ball.

In a league that has turned its nose up at crease attackmen, Dickson is the X-factor of New York’s pass-first offense. Within a system that loves to create assisted shots, he’s the glue that holds it together and optimizes the pieces around him.

Dickson’s both proven the value of crease attackmen while also establishing new norms for the position. With the Atlas a game away from their first title, his attention is on shattering another troubling theory.

“This whole team is just sick and tired of the narrative that we can’t win big games,” he said. “Raising the trophy would be not only a weight off our shoulders, but it would just mean the world to the guys in the locker room.”