Call it synchronicity or just good karma, but this season’s High School North girls’ lacrosse team and the High School South boys’ team are near-perfect matches of one another. While their respective opposite-gender schoolmates have floundered on the lacrosse field (both North boys and South girls teams have losing records), these paragons of persistence have quietly become, once again, strong contenders in the CVC.
With the NJSIAA tournament in sight, but with some key hurdles yet to overcome, both teams are cautiously optimistic. With a little good fortune, this could be the year when North and South make a splash.
North Girls
In lacrosse, like in almost everything else, timing is everything. Entering the season with a team full of question marks, head coach Beth Mitchell (along with assistant coaches Carly Connor, Kate Malec, and Lauren Galietti), have the Lady Knights’ operating like a Swiss watch. “I absolutely love this team,” says Mitchell, now in her sixth season as head coach. “There is so much unity among everybody and when you have that it makes for a unique experience.”
With a string of impressive victories over such teams as Hun (15-14 on May 1), Hightstown, Ewing, Notre Dame, and High School South (20-10 on April 27) the Knights have faltered only once so far: against Princeton, 16-15, on April 19. “We just didn’t play our best in that game,” says Mitchell. “We know what we have to do to win and in that game we were a little inconsistent. I think we just didn’t go out ready to play that game.” The loss — coupled with Hopewell’s win over Princeton and North’s dramatic win over Hopewell on April 25 — has resulted in a three-way tie among those teams for the CVC’s top spot with a 9-1 record.
The Knights play a conservative and highly capable brand of lacrosse based on the premise that each player will do her job well and not try to do too much. But the team’s top scorer, and the player who draws the most attention from opposing defenses, is senior attack Kate Lalli. Sister of the famed former North lacrosse standout Matt Lalli (who now plays at Colgate University), she has been a starter since her sophomore season. “Kate has made great strides every year,” says Mitchell. “She is a fantastic player who rarely misses the net. She has great stick skills and an uncanny ability to find the open spaces to score goals.” In the first 10 games of the season, Lalli had already notched 51 goals. She will play lacrosse next season at Stevens University.
But North is far from being just a one-woman show. Midfielder Kirsten Orloff, also a senior, is another potent offensive threat. “She is very clean with her skills and knows how to find the back of the net very well,” says Mitchell. Against North Hunterdon, on April 29 (Orloff`s first game back after suffering a sprained ankle), the Knights trailed 6-4 in the first half. After coming out blazing in the second half, the Knights fought back to tie things up with less than a minute to play. Then with 22 seconds remaining, Orloff took a pass from Lalli and scored the game-winner, her fifth goal of the game. She will be heading to Dartmouth in the fall.
Brooke Wiener, a senior, is another big contributor for North. An outstanding three-sport athlete (volleyball, basketball, as well as lacrosse), Wiener plays the center of the field with determination, using excellent stick skills and possessing an ability to move to the net at key moments. She will attend Lehigh next year. Senior attack Amanda Lipsky is also having an outstanding season. An excellent place-setter, Lipsky also displays a knack for making good things happen at the offensive end of the field.
The Knights top defender is junior Anne Dysart. “She is absolutely fantastic,” says Mitchell. “One of the most consistent players on the team, Anne is very fast and very skilled.” The other starters on defense include juniors Liz Tang, Rachel Martin, and senior Whitney Handy, who is back after taking a year off to concentrate on competitive swimming. Senior Suzanne Haggerty is also having an exceptional year as the starting goaltender. “She has been so important in so many games this season, especially in the Hopewell game” says Mitchell. “She just kept on making big saves when we needed them.”
The Knights, who have made the state playoffs every single year, are hoping to advance past the second round for the first time in their history. Says Mitchell: “We don’t just want to stop at winning the conference this year. We want to keep it going as long as we can.”
Whether that goal becomes a reality is yet to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Mitchell and her team are having the sort of season that will stay in the memory banks for years to come. “I just really want them to do well because they deserve it,” says Mitchell. “I’m excited for every game that I have with these girls. They’re special girls and a special team.”
North will play at South Brunswick on Monday, May 15, at 4 p.m. The Knights then play at New Egypt on Thursday, May 18, at 4 p.m. before traveling to Jackson Memorial on Saturday, May 20, at 11 a.m.
South Boys
We don’t believe in rebuilding, we believe in reloading,” says South boys’ lacrosse coach Kerry Wiegner. So far, not too many people who would argue with him.
Despite having won the CVC championship last year with a 12-5 record, many lacrosse observers were writing off the Pirates’ boys’ lacrosse team this season. After all, graduating seven starters — including such standouts as Jon Lupo, Jason Tosches, and Ben Wilson — as well as 13 letter-winners from last year was going to make it difficult for South to defend its championship.
But sports is filled with surprises. Despite having seven starters with no previous varsity experience (including four freshmen), the Pirates have a 5-4 record and again are challenging for first place in the highly competitive CVC. “It’s not where we want to be record-wise or where we have been the past four years, but overall things are going quite well,” says Wiegner.
That is an understatement. Although South has lost four of its first nine games, it has won games in the kind of dominating, take-no-prisoners style that can set opponent’s knees a’ knocking. The Pirates demolished a thoroughly hapless Lawrence team, 16-2, on April 7. Then on April 18, South ransacked Pennington, 15-3, when freshmen Dave Twamley slammed home three goals and earned two assists while fellow freshman Connor Farrell added three more goals and one assist. Juniors Dan Fryer and Dan Jankowski as well as senior Dante Ingato all added two goals apiece.
South showed its grit against a surprisingly tough Princeton Day School on April 25. Losing late in the game, South fought back to win, 11-10, when Farrell scored his second goal of the game just 26 seconds into overtime. Twamley and Dante Ingato also scored three goals each. South also garnered big early season wins over Allentown (April 4) and Ewing (April 11).
As everyone from Vince Lombardi to Bill Gates has said, one of the keys to success is knowing never to panic. Despite the prevalence of inexperience, the Pirates have managed to focus on a game plan built on poise and equilibrium. The result is that the list of the state’s top scorers each week will rarely have a Pirate near the top. Says Wiegner: “We have a viewpoint that doesn’t necessarily result in one guy scoring four or five goals a game. We want everybody contributing.”
Over the past four seasons, Wiegner’s team has managed to rack up more wins than nearly every other public high school team in central New Jersey. According to Wiegner, there is just one secret to success and that is hard work. “We require a lot of dedication and sacrifice,” he says. “It’s not for everybody. But that is the key to building the kind of team that it takes to win.”
Wiegner makes sure that his athletes are the most highly conditioned competitors this side of a Marine boot camp. “On the very first day we are allowed to practice we start things out at 6 a.m.,” says Wiegner. “It’s usually about 15 degrees in early March and the guys who really want to play lacrosse make sure they get there on time to run that mile-and-a-half. If you can handle that, you are going to be fine.”
Before the start of the NJSIAA playoffs on Wednesday, May 24 (opponent yet to be determined), the Pirates will face Hillsborough at home on Saturday, May 13, at 3 p.m. South then will battle Montgomery at home on Wednesday, May 17, at 4 p.m. The Pirates will face cross-district rival High School North at North on Saturday, May 20, at 1 p.m.
Boys’ Tennis MCT:
‘Three-Peat’ for South
After Shintaro Mori, High School South’s starter at first singles, was eliminated from contention in the first round, the Pirates knew they would need big performances if they were to win their third consecutive Mercer County Tennis Tournament title.
In the second day of play, on April 27, the Pirates not only played big, they swept all four remaining top spots on their way to capturing their “three peat.”
The Pirates finished with 32 points, five more than second-place Hun, in an ironic reversal of fortune. After the first day, Hun led High School South by four points, and it was Hun’s unseeded Lance Gouldbourne, who defeated Mori.
South was named top seed in Central Jersey Group IV and will have a first-round bye in the NJSIAA Tournament, which opened on May 11. The Pirates will play the winner of the Edison-Marlboro match on Tuesday, May 16.
MCT semifinals results — Second singles: Steven Fernandez def. David Zheng of Princeton, 6-4, 6-0. Third singles: Leland Richardson def. Dylan Deher of PDS, 6-1, 6-1. First doubles: Dennis Tuan & Ben Cornfeld def. Spencer Zlatin & Ian Humphrey of Hightstown, 7-5, 6-1. Second doubles: Piray Sekar & Stewart Fernandez def. Ben Harms & Samir Patel of Hightstown, 6-2, 6-2.
MCT Finals results — Fernandez def. Wilder Sampson of Hun, 6-4, 6-3. Richardson def. Chris Martin of Hun, 6-1, 6-0. Tuan & Cornfeld def. Aaron Maltby and Chris Nesi of Princeton, 6-1, 6-3. Sekar & Fernandez def. Ren Gates and Jack Barrett of Hun, 6-1, 6-1.
