National HSG Notebook: Cy-Fair Eyes Texas Title
by Jeff Seidel | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
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| The unbeaten Cy-Fair Iron Maidens, a club team, are unbeaten and the No. 1 seed in the Texas Girls High School Lacrosse League tournament. |
Jeff Seidel covers high school lacrosse for Lacrosse Magazine Online. Check back each week for his regional breakdown of what's what around nation. Submit notes or story ideas to jseid1234@aol.com.
SOUTH
The Cy-Fair Iron Maidens will try to complete a perfect season in the next several days as they head into the six-team final round of the Texas Girls High School Lacrosse League tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Cy-Fair, an independent club team that’s made up of girls from five high schools in the Cy-Fair school district in Northwest Houston, comes into the competition with a 15-0 record. The Iron Maidens last won the title in 2004 and qualified with a 13-7 victory over St. John’s in the Houston City championship last weekend.
They will play next on Saturday, against the winner of the St. Andrew’s-Episcopal School of Dallas (ESD) match-up.
Coach Chris Haefele now has 284 career victories, a pretty good number for a petroleum engineer who volunteers as a head coach. Assistant coach Kara Haefele said the team has done everything well so far this season.
“Despite a few setbacks, the girls have really come together as a team and have played tremendously,” she said. “We’re hoping to finish this week strong and take the title.”
The Iron Maidens lost seven starters from last year and saw a key player from this season’s team get hurt in a preseason tournament. Plus, they lost their practice fields midway through the spring and had to scramble to find places to practice each week.
They’ve got only two seniors on this year’s team, which has received good performances from several players, including junior midfielders Delaney Fisher and Emily Newstrom, sophomore goalie Natalie Weitkunat and senior defender Kat Loos.
The Iron Maidens are dedicating the season to Julia Briggs, a member of the middle school team who died unexpectedly last spring.
WEST
It’s playoff time in Utah for the quickly-growing sport of lacrosse.
Post-season play begins this week in Utah, where there are approximately 35 girls teams that play the sport. It is presently a club sport, although it’s expected the state will sanction lacrosse as a high school sport in the coming years.
The Utah Lacrosse Association’s numbers are getting bigger each year – for both boys and girls – but their officials are happy with the way things are right now, even though they’re not sanctioned by the state.
“The state just put a five-year moratorium on any additional sanctioning, for budget reasons, “ said ULA executive director Lisa Schmidt. “Sports are being cut now or they’re being restricted, just based on money. But we have control over what we do.”
This will be the 11th state championship for the girls, and it’s split into two divisions. Alta won Division I last year and is in the playoffs again, which started Thursday.
Brighton won the Division II title last year but moved up to Division I and didn’t make the playoffs. But Skyline, the team that lost to Brighton, meets Alta in a first-round game.
The state championships will be Saturday, May 15 at Viewmont High School.
MIDWEST
The Indiana High School Women’s Lacrosse Association recently announced a list of players who made the Indiana/Kentucky National team. This group gets to play at the NCAA women's lacrosse championships Memorial Day weekend.
Here’s the list and the schools they’re from: Julie Bergman (Heritage Christian), Grace Garrett (Carmel), Carolyn Kraus (Hamilton Southeastern), Molly Maher (Zionsville), Katie Pittman (Carmel), Chelsea Roberts (Zionsville), Abigail Snively (Carmel), Alyssa Stetson (Carmel), Anna Teeter (Heritage Christian) and Rachel Ward (Bishop Chatard).
The state tournament begins next week with regional play on May 11, 13 and 15. The semifinals will take place on May 21 at Heritage Christian.
After that comes the state title games on May 22, also at Heritage Christian.
NORTHEAST
Tantasqua got a little help from a lot of places in a 13-8 victory over Belchertown earlier this week in Massachusetts lacrosse action.
Jessica Farland led the way with a five-point effort. She posted three goals and two assists. Emily Bamberger and Melissa Frio also netted hat tricks.
Alyx Darger added two goals while Devinne Aquado and Alie Minchoff each scored once. Jamie Spidle made 13 saves to help Tantasqua improve to 7-3 on the season.
Belchertown (0-8) fell behind, 8-3, at halftime but kept pace in the second half. Stefanie Dufresne scored twice in the loss.
MID-ATLANTIC
McDonogh made it look easy in a 20-9 rout of Good Counsel last weekend in a game that matched the No. 1 schools in Baltimore and Washington.
For the victorious Eagles, they just had too much offense for Good Counsel, according to the Washington Post. Hannah Franklin (six goals, one assist) led the way with six goals as McDonogh shook off an early 2-0 deficit to roll to a victory.
Franklin scored three in a row as McDonogh got six straight goals to bounce back. The Eagles also scored five in a row in the second half to remove any lingering doubt.
McDonogh’s speed and good defense made it tough for Good Counsel to both clear and get enough good shots. A bunch of mistakes helped McDonogh come up with a number of good scoring chances that the Eagles converted. Christina Sheridan finished with 19 saves for Good Counsel .
