National High School Girls' Notebook:
Falcons Soar into Maryland Final Four
by Jeff Seidel | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
MID-ATLANTIC
When Winters Mill (Md.) suffered a loss to top-ranked McDonogh earlier this season, coach Courtney Vaughn was not a happy camper.
The game meant nothing, since McDonogh is a private school and Winters Mill is public. But it was a good test for Winters Mill, even though it suffered a 15-5 defeat. Still, Vaughn was upset at how her team played that day.
“We were a step behind, and I think we played scared,” Vaughn said.
But the Falcons haven’t been scared of much since. They’ve won 14 in a row, including tough one-goal victories over Liberty and Glenelg to earn a spot in the Class 2A-1A state final four Friday night.
Winters Mill is going after its second state title in three years. The Falcons won the Class 3A-2A crown two years ago.
This year, Winters Mill (16-1) will meet Patterson Mill (12-6) from Harford County Friday. The winner of that game then plays the winner of the Queen Anne’s-Loch Raven match-up next week at UMBC.
The Falcons didn’t have an easy path to the finals. They had to beat Liberty, 13-12, in the West Region semifinals. After that came a tough 10-9 victory over Glenelg in the region final.
Now, they’ll take on Patterson Mill, a Harford County school that’s only played varsity lacrosse for a few years.
In the Liberty game, Amalie Trentzsch got the game-winning goal, and goalie Katie Horn made two big stops late in the game. Then came the Glenelg victory.
The Falcons haven’t played scared in a quite awhile.
SOUTH
The Westminster girls' lacrosse team completed a state title sweep for the school by routing West Forsyth, 22-9, in the recent Georgia AAAA championship game.
The Wildcats won their first state title since 2004, and coach Jay Watts’ team finished with a 21-1 record.
West Forsyth (22-1) just couldn’t stop the Westminster offense, which kept the ball for long stretches and often found good scoring chances.
Milly Macadam led the way with four goals and four assists for a career-high eight points. Mary Beth Bird helped with five points and one assist for six points. She ended the season with 60 goals and 19 assists for 79 points.
In addition, Bird had five draw controls to help Westminster.
“There were times when she just dominated the game,” Watts said.
Eve Knapp pitched in with four goals and one assist. Goalie Emma Wilson added 11 saves to help the Wildcats.
Watts said that they were worried about the West Forsyth offense, specifically top scorer Nikki Erdley. Westminster worked hard at shutting down at Erdley, and its work paid off as it limited her to just one goal.
Jojo Olson did a solid job on defense against Erdley. Westminster shut down the West Forsyth (20-1) attack and kept the ball for long stretches, which made it very hard for the opponent to score.
“They just had a really strong attack,” Watts said. “I knew we had to control the ball and keep it at our end of the field."
NORTHEAST
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s state tournament will start soon.
The seeding is set to take place on May 27 (for the North and South) and May 28 (Central and West). After that comes the Sectional Finals on June 10-12.
The Division 2 state final is going to have the North winner against the South or June 14 or 15 at a neurtral site.
For Division 1, the state semifinals are scheduled to take place somewhere between June 15-17 at a neutral site. The first game is going to have the South versus North, with the next semifinal featuring the West against the Central winner.
Then, the winner of both semifinals are going to meet in the state final on June 18 or 19 at Foley Stadium in Worcester.
MIDWEST
Collegiate beat Ballard, 14-7, in a Kentucky Lacrosse Association state semifinal earlier this week. Kentucky Country Day rolled to a 15-5 victory over Sacred Heart in the other semfinal, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.
The two winners are scheduled to meet for the state final this week.
Taylor Hodge led Collegiate with five goals, and Mallory Tyler added four more in that game.
For Kentucky Country Day, Ellen Esterhay and Michelle Worthington both were recently named to the 2010 US Lacrosse All-American team.
WEST
Los Alamitos rolled to a 24-7 victory over Redondo in the US Lacrosse Southern Section title game last week, according to dailybreeze.com
This was the second straight Southern Section title for Los Alamitos, which ended the season with a 21-0 record. In addition, the school now has won 40 consecutive games over the past two seasons.
Redondo had won 17 in a row coming into this game, but Los Alamitos proved to be just too much.
Shaina Denny paced Los Alamitos with six goals, and Tracy Paulson added five more. Julia Denney scored four goals for Redondo – all of which came in the first half.
Redondo stayed relatively close in the first half as Los
Alamitos scored six goals. But Redondo could get only one goal
after that.
