ANDOVER — Through plenty of pride, Andover’s Jen Caro couldn’t help but feel a little unfulfilled.
“It is amazing we could go as far as we did,” she said. “It has been an amazing season. But when you have done all of this, there is still part of you that wants more. It’s bittersweet.”
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/11/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
CARL RUSSO/Staff photo. Andover's Jaclyn Torres (5) shoots on net. Andover defeated Westford Academy 22-13 in North Division One girls' lacrosse semi-final action Wednesday night. 6/8/2011. 9 Photos
ANDOVER — The celebration may have been postponed to a day when the season is done, but the Andover girls lacrosse team couldn’t hide the excitement last night.
“It is unreal,” said Ally Fazio. “To think this is the best any Andover (girls lacrosse) team has done is amazing. After losing in the semifinals last year, winning this year is awesome.”
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/08/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Londonderry coach Bob Slater certainly had faith in his sophomore goalie, Sarah Ford, despite how she was only the varsity team backup until about five days ago.
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/06/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Londonderry graduated eight seniors off last year's state championship team but the Lancers just keep on winning.
Fifty-two straight victories to be exact.
Yes, Londonderry High girls lacrosse won its 52nd straight game against a New Hampshire foe yesterday, beating Exeter 15-11 in the Division 1 semifinals to advance to yet another championship game.
No. 1 Londonderry (15-0 in New Hampshire) will play No. 2 Concord (14-3) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University.
Londonderry beat Concord 8-6 at Concord on May 6, then won 12-9 over Concord at home May 10.
"It started when we went to Florida at the beginning of the season," Londonderry's Jenny Thompson said. "We've had a huge transition from last year's team. We lost eight seniors, but we all came together. So were kind of used to each other the past two or three years playing together and then all those seniors left so we had to rebuild. We've done tremendous ever since we started practice. Everyone has been giving 110 percent."
Thompson, a junior, scored five goals yesterday and has 10 in two playoff games and 61 on the season. Thompson already has received an athletic scholarship offer from Boston University and is looking at William & Mary, UMass Amherst and UConn.
Thompson said Londonderry's late season 12-9 loss Andover was a positive for the Lancers.
"It was perfect timing," Thompson said. "It was the week right before playoffs. It got us in the right mindset. It got us physically ready to play a good team because we hadn't played as good of a team as that. I think the loss, it had a toll on us but it obviously didn't bring us down at all. If anything, we were more confident. We wanted to show who we are and what we can bring out on the field and I think we have."
Londonderry coach Bob Slater added about Thompson: "She took control of the offense and running the plays as a junior, which is very important because our whole offense is junior, sophomore, freshmen."
Sophomore Julia Wasserman netted three goals and added an assist for the Lancers.
"She started out at defense and I made a switch the first week of the season or second week and made her an attack," Slater said about Wasserman. "It's paid off big. ... She played an excellent game."
Londonderry was ahead 14-7 but Exeter scored four straight goals to bring the score to 14-11 with 5:46 left.
Slater called a timeout. And it worked. The Lancers gained possession right away out of the timeout and kept possession until Kelsey Derhak scored with 34 seconds left to make it 15-11.
"That was the key," Slater said. "That should have started maybe at 10 minutes. But it's tough. You can't stall a game 10 minutes in. You got to still keep going to goal because it can go upside down on you in a hurry."
Londonderry senior starting goalie Crystalle Parent again was not in net for the Lancers for the second straight game. Instead, sophomore Sarah Ford started for the Lancers. Parent actually is no longer with the team, Slater said.
"She is not with us any longer," Slater said. "Sarah took over the position as our starting goalie."
Slater was asked why Parent is no longer with the team and he said: "Just discipline reasons. I made the call the other day. It was the school and me. We run a very disciplined program. It's a privilege to play a sport and if you can't go by the rules, and you don't want to follow the disciplinary (rules), then we move other people up."
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/04/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
ANDOVER — Who likes practice?
The Andover High girls lacrosse does during playoff time, of course.
“Our big saying before games is ‘We want to have another practice, we want to have another practice,’” senior Emily Shields said.
Andover lived to play — or practice — another day as it won 18-11 over Acton Boxboro in the Division 1 North semifinals yesterday. The Golden Warriors (21-1-0) advanced to the semifinals against the winner of Westford Academy/Lexington at a time and location to be determined.
The Andover defense has been extremely strong this year and has continued that trend in the playoffs. It entered the postseason having allowed just 6.4 goals per game during the regular season. The Golden Warriors held Haverhill to four goals in Round One before holding Acton Boxboro to 11.
The defensive starters are Shields, Jaymi Cohen and Jackie Alois.
“It all starts with defense,” said Shields who will play at American University on a Division 1 scholarship next year. “And with our slides we’re always there but if not we know (goalie Jill Beucler) is always there to back us up. And with eight meters, if we get to a shot quicker, if we can block the shot off, then we know she’s going to have an easy save. So we do whatever to make sure she has an easy save.”
Meanwhile, senior Meghan Morris and sophomore Meagan Keefe provided the offense yesterday.
Keefe scored five goals, while Morris added four goals and one assist.
“I think I’ve done it once (score five goals in a game) but the playoffs is a good time to do it again,” Keefe said.
Morris is headed to play lacrosse next year at Siena College on a athletic and academic scholarship.
“We had a good start today,” Morris said about the offense. “We came out strong. We scored a lot of goals in the beginning. ... And our defense is so energetic and just works so hard. Defense is really what wins games. They trust each other and work together and just when they do well, everyone else does well.”
Andover led 11-7 at halftime.
In five of the past six years, Andover has made it to the Division 1 North semifinal. But the Golden Warriors have never gotten past the semifinals.
Will this be the year they get to practice on?
We’ll see.
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/04/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Jenny Thompson, Leah Walter and Alexa Bedell each netted five goals as No. 1 Londonderry girls lacrosse won 17-4 over No. 8 Manchester Memorial in the Division 1 quarterfinals. Backup goalie Sarah Ford stopped six shots.
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Girls Lacrosse, 06/02/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
After battling Westford Academy to a tough, one-goal defeat less than two weeks ago, North Andover was shocked as the Dual County League foe exploded for 15 second-half goals and a 22-12 Division 1 North first round victory. "Turnovers and draw controls (won by Westford 29-13) killed us," said head coach Karen Lahey. "They just outplayed us." Maggie Samuelman and Lauren Miller drew pairse from Leahy for outstanding efforts in their final game.
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Girls Lacrosse, 05/31/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Georgetown stormed back from a halftime deficit to tie things up, but Marblehead rattled off a six-goal run to take charge and defeat the upset-minded Royals, 20-13, in Division 2 North first round action. In just her second year playing the game, senior Paige Murphy closed her career with another strong effort in net while Chelsea Burke, Marisa Agganis and Sammi Francesconi were also lauded by head coach Heather Hartford.
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Girls Lacrosse, 05/31/11 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
