Paris Masaracchia’s Clemson Legacy

Ben Robertson — June 9, 2026

CLEMSON, S.C. — When the Clemson Tigers play their first game of the 2027 season, it will be the 79th contest in program history — and their first without Paris Masaracchia. Over the past four seasons, the defender has anchored the Tigers while they have quickly emerged as a force in college lacrosse.

Paris has played in and started every game of the program’s existence. She also captained consecutive NCAA Tournament and ACC Semifinal teams.

The Enola, Pennsylvania, native graduated from Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown. By the time she got to Tiger Town, she was no stranger to building a program.

Paris made an immediate impact at Bishop Shanahan after transferring from York Catholic as a junior, leading the Eagles to their first-ever league and district championships in 2021 and 2022.

“A lot of that was because Paris was on the team; she was a major piece,” Bishop Shanahan Head Coach Kacy Small said.

Paris piled up accolades for the Eagles and initially committed to Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). In July 2021, while on her way to the Under Armour All-American weekend, she received news that altered the course of her career.

After a coaching change in Blacksburg, Paris lost her offer. In a panic, she reached out to Small over the phone.

“She was literally driving down to [Maryland],” Small said. “So, I’m thinking she’s just nervous to play with the stars. I’m like, ‘That’s weird, that’s not Paris at all. She’s not nervous about anything.’”

After Paris told him what happened, Small gave his player steadying words of advice. He reminded her that she was about to compete against the best players in her class and had an incredible opportunity to prove herself to college coaches.

“I need you to trust me here. I need you to focus [on] your game and your performance,” he said to her. “She went out and had an unbelievable game and totally showed out.”

After getting off the phone with his star defender, Small also did something else. He got right back on the phone with every coach at the next level that he knew, drumming up interest in Paris.

Interest came quickly, including from Allison Kwolek, who was building the inaugural team at Clemson.

While Kwolek knew she would have to reach heavily into the transfer portal to have early success, landing a blue-chip recruit out of high school would be a nice centerpiece to her first recruiting class.

Including Paris, Clemson’s inaugural signing class featured seven student-athletes.

Fast forward to the 2026 season, when Clemson welcomed a highly touted freshman class led by the nation’s top two recruits, Alexa Spallina and Emma Penczek. Those rookies walked into a state-of-the-art lacrosse facility that was built as part of a $37 million project dedicated to women’s sports.

The Clemson Lacrosse Complex has everything a program could imagine: stunning locker rooms, treatment areas and an LED-lit gameday walkout tunnel — the brainchild of Allison Kwolek’s husband, Mark — that leads out to Conklin Field.

When Kwolek recruited Paris, she only had the blueprints of those plans to use as selling points. While they were being turned into reality, the inaugural team faced a host of logistical challenges.

Before construction of the lacrosse complex was completed, the Tigers conducted virtually every team activity in a different location, including practices on the university’s recreation fields and film sessions in the offices of Clemson Memorial Stadium.

“Nothing was easy; we had to bump around a lot,” Kwolek said. “Even parking at the stadium was a mess. Bill’s [Olin] car got towed the first year. Everybody’s cars got towed.”

Parking has long been a bit of an issue at Clemson, and while the sport of lacrosse is growing in South Carolina, the state is not exactly a hotbed. The kind folks at the towing company were not the only ones who had to get used to the new team on campus.

“I think our athletic trainer was the most worried because she never really saw much lacrosse before that. Then we started, like, beating on each other, and she was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Paris, who is particularly known for her physicality on defense, said.

The Tigers powered through first-year challenges and had more success than anyone could have imagined in 2023, finishing 12-6 overall.

Expectations are typically low for new teams, but Clemson immediately put the country on notice, outscoring opponents 85-7 in their first four games.

Those first four opponents were mid-major schools, far from the likes of North Carolina, Boston College and Syracuse, who they would see down the line. The Tigers roared out of the gates, but they found life in the ACC was not easy.

The program has posted a winning record in each of its first four seasons but finished under .500 in its first two years of conference play.

The team also watched its head coach fight an even tougher battle than the Tar Heels, Eagles or Orange on the field. In February 2023, less than two years after she was hired in Tiger Town, Allison Kwolek was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She told her team after their first-ever ACC game, a 12-9 loss to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish scored the last five goals of the game to erase a fourth-quarter lead, but the game offered a glimpse of what the Tigers could become.

“That day was already a roller coaster of emotions,” Paris said. “We just wanted her to be okay.”

Shock and concern soon turned into inspiration. Days after surgery in March 2023, Kwolek was back at practice and on the sideline for gameday two weeks later.

“It was like three days out of surgery; she was in a chair watching practice,” Paris said. “We didn’t know if this was crazy or great, but we loved it. She’s our leader.”

Kwolek coached the Tigers to a 4-5 mark in the ACC during the 2023 season, with a 3-7 finish the following year.

Clemson’s first ACC win came against Duke on March 11, 2023. The one-goal victory also marked the program’s first win over a ranked opponent.

Paris became a captain as a junior in 2025, and just like she did at Bishop Shanahan, helped her team reach new heights. Clemson finished 14-7 with a 6-3 record in conference action — their best season yet.

The Tigers reached the ACC Semifinals for the first time and punched their first ticket to the NCAA Tournament, where they toppled Navy 11-8 in the opening round.

Paris was named to the ACC All-Tournament Team after an 11-groundball, seven-caused turnover effort over two games, and she picked up IWLCA All-Region honors after the season.

It is the impact that her high school coach, Kacy Small, always envisioned.

“Here’s a person that knows how to take a program from nowhere to somewhere,” he once told Kwolek. “This is the type of player you’re looking for.”

2026 only brought more history for the Tigers, as they won a program-best 15 games and finished third in the ACC regular-season standings. They capped off an 11-game winning streak with a 12-9 victory in the ACC Quarterfinals over Notre Dame, the team that had beaten them by the same score in their first-ever ACC game three years before.

Eleven days earlier, Clemson celebrated senior day with a 17-5 thrashing over a ranked Duke team — and a dip into Lake Hartwell afterward. For Paris and the other players who were on the inaugural team, the day was full of emotion.

“[The seniors] were in shambles. We were just so happy and honored to be Clemson lacrosse players,” Paris said. “This journey has meant so much to each and every one of us.”

After their ACC Quarterfinal win over Notre Dame, the Tigers’ winning streak came to an end with a one-goal loss to Stanford in the ACC Semifinals. Their resume secured another trip to the NCAA Tournament, where they earned their second-ever win in the Big Dance before falling to North Carolina in the second round.

While the loss ended her playing career at Clemson, Paris will continue her studies in the MBA program.

She beams with pride when reflecting on her final season.

“This senior season has been incredible,” Paris said. “Being able to see the growth of the program from day one to year four makes it that much more special.”