Aug. 1, 2008
by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
CATONSVILLE, Md. - Amy Appelt is blazing a
comeback trail, and Northwestern's Christy Finch, for one, felt the
heat Friday morning.
Appelt bull dodged Finch on an even break and deposited a shot off
Finch's hip and into the lower left corner of the cage. Seconds
later, she recovered the ball on a redefend, surfacing from a loose
ball skirmish with another goal from point-blank range.
She's back.
"I've definitely been working out, getting back to my college
roots," Appelt said, "doing a lot of plyometrics, a lot of
conditioning and a lot of stickwork."
Appelt, the 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy winner out of Virginia, spent
the last year smarting over her exclusion from the 2007-08 U.S.
Elite team, and was one of 84 women's lacrosse players who advanced
to the second round of Team USA tryouts this weekend at UMBC.
Before the three-day combine commenced Friday in near-90-degree
heat, 11 more dropped out due to either injury or commitments,
leaving 73 players to vie for 48 spots on the Elite and
Developmental teams.
Those players remaining Sunday will all be in contention for the
2009 IFWLA World Cup team competing in Prague, Czech Republic.
Appelt, an alternate on the 2005 U.S. World Cup team that lost to
Australia in the gold medal match, hopes to be among them. She drew
criticism from Team USA head coach Sue Heether for a lackluster
tryout this time last year, and was left off the Elite team for the
first time in three years, albeit during a non-World Cup year.
"It made you dig deeper as a person. It's one of the goals you've
aspired to - to be on a World Cup team - and it's one of your only
goals playing lacrosse that you haven't reached," said Appelt, who
helped lead Virginia to an NCAA Division I national championship in
2004. "It took me a month or two to regroup. No one wants to get
cut. It definitely hit a low point, but it made me that much
stronger. It was a gift and a curse."
Dartmouth duo duels between
pipes
U.S. Elite team veteran Devon Wills made a bold proclamation for
Julie Wadland, her former understudy and a rising junior at
Dartmouth: "I'm almost positive she will be a U.S. player, if not
this year, then in the future."
Wills, who led the Big Green to the NCAA final four in 2006 and
spent the last two years as an assistant coach there under Amy
Patton, has the most international experience of the eight goalies
trying out for the next U.S. team.
But that should not deter Wadland, Liz Hogan (Syracuse), Megan
Huether (Duke), Kendall McBrearty (Virginia), Laura Shane
(Stanford) or Hilary Harkins (UC-Davis). Of the eight goalies, it
is likely that the player selection committee will retain five or
six through this second round of tryouts and into the fall.
"It's a good deal," Wadland said, "kind of scary though, ya
know?"
In a way, Wills is trying to be for Wadland and the other goalies
what former U.S. World Cup goalie Jess Wilk was for her - a
mentor.
"She'd always reach out to younger players and give verbal
support," Wills said. "But when it was her time in the cage, it was
her."
Wadland made no bones about who the frontrunner was, however.
"Having [Wills] on the other side totally ups my game. When she's
out there, I try to play at that level," she said. "She basically
taught me everything I know."
U-19ers get a chance,
too
Two years ago this time, midfielder Sarah Bullard and defender
Colleen McCaffrey were high school neophytes fighting for spots on
the 2007 U.S. Under-19 team here at UMBC.
Both went on to play major roles in Team USA's convincing march to
a gold medal at the IFWLA U-19 World Championships. Bullard was a
captain who then saw significant playing time as a freshman at Duke
this year, and McCaffrey's size provided an intimidating presence
for international opponents.
They and Jordy Kirr, the gold-medal match MVP coming off an
impressive freshman campaign at Georgetown, remain in the running
for an encore.
"I feel like I'm low on the totem pole. We're starting from
scratch, but that's OK," Bullard said. "It's funny to be back here
at UMBC, because this is where our U-19 team tryouts were. You just
kind of recall every detail."
McCaffrey, a rising freshman at Johns Hopkins fresh off a stellar
All-American career at Mount Sinai (N.Y.) High School, is the lone
remaining player without any college experience.
"Playing with the U-19 team, it's pretty much at that college
level," she said, "but this is obviously a good warm-up for the
college level too."
Tryouts, which are closed to the public, continue with sessions
Saturday and Sunday, with an announcement of a pared-down,
48-person U.S. team roster expected at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Check back
to LMO for more coverage throughout the weekend.
