although rules have changed for lacrosse since 2016 they have not for soccer (Yet) that impact this:
https://www.prepwellacademy.com/blog/10th-grade-lacrosse-player-commits-to-harvard
explains how it works.
"Coaches don’t have time to let a student’s academic career develop. This is why they pursue the best athlete/talent they can get - even if the student is on the edge academically (relatively speaking, of course).
If a coach’s #1 recruit doesn’t perform as expected on the SAT/ACT, there is still time to recover. The student can re-take the test and the coach can set a higher academic bar for future recruits (#2 - 5) to pick up the academic slack. "