Girls Varsity Lacrosse Team Poised for Playoff Run

Can the Scarsdale Girls Varsity Lacrosse team bounce back after graduating its star and goal scoring record-holder Lindsey Repp? Unfortunately, maybe not. Last year, the team finished the regular season with 10 wins and 7 losses. As this year's regular season came to a close on Thursday May 7 and Saturday May 9 the team lost both games, the first at home to White Plains, the second away to a very tough Somers team and now stand at 7-9.

Thursday May 7th was the final regular season home game for the team as well as the senior game, showcasing the talents of the Class of 2015. The team will be graduating six seniors this season, Amanda Shuster, Ali Farfel, Catherine Fitzgerald, and captains Kate Greenberg, Bridget Horwood and Sarah Mehlman. The team has been relying on regular contributions from all these seniors, in all parts of the field. Amanda Shuster and captain Kate Greenberg are regulars on the defensive end for the team, putting in long shifts protecting the goal. Ali Farfel, Catherine Fitzgerald and Bridget Horwood have been regular contributors on the offensive end, accounting for 22 goals and 17 assists on the season. Commanding the midfield has been captain Sarah Mehlman, leading the team with a notable 53 goals this season, and totaling 159 goals over her four year Varsity career.

The Thursday game against White Plains was hotly contested, ending 12-10 in White Plains favor, after Scarsdale took a slight 7-4 lead at the half. Throughout the game, Scarsdale played very tight defense, face guarding their opponents and denying them the amount of space necessary to legally take a shot, called the "shooting space" in Lacrosse rules. The game was also one of possession, with both teams able to control the ball for lengthy periods of time, leaving few opportunities for ground ball battles to change possession. The few ground balls that did arise were mostly won by Scarsdale who collectively won a total of 26 ground balls over the course of the game. Sarah Mehlman led the team with 3 goals in the game, scoring from 6 shots on goal. Junior Eliza Brosgol led the team with 5 points, two from goals and 3 from her team leading 3 assists on the game. Other notable performances came from Senior Bridget Horwood with two goals and an assist, and Junior Michaela Nicholas, with two goals. Freshman Lily Steckel and sophomore Jillian Mehlman had a goal and an assist respectively to round out the Scarsdale score line. The loss came in large part because of unforced errors, dropped balls and missed shots towards the end of the game, combined with intelligent play from White Plains to kill off the final few minutes with possession.

Saturday's loss came at the hands of Somers, who are 10-2-1 on the season, tying Horace Greely. The first half of the game was very streaky, starting with Somers scoring twice and leading 2-0. Scarsdale then scored four in a row, taking a 4-2 lead. Somers came back and scored 7 straight goals, to regain the lead 9-4, before Scarsdale scored again to bring the game to 9-5. For the duration of the game, mainly the second half, the teams traded goals, not starting any kind of significant run as seen in the first half. The game ultimately ended 18-12 in Somers favor. Michaela Nicholas led Scarsdale with four goals in the losing effort, followed by fellow Junior Eliza Brosgol, who had three. Sisters Sarah and Jillian Mehlman combined for 3 goals and 4 assists. Erin Nicholas, Michaela's sophomore sister also had a good game scoring twice on five shots. At many points in the game, Somers seemed to have the better of Scarsdale, who seemed to be forcing shots and trying to score quickly. However, Scarsdale was able to settle down and pass the ball around their offensive end as they have done so well this whole season, and to Somers dismay, Scarsdale was never truly out of the game until the final whistle blew.

The Scarsdale Girls Varsity team starts their playoff run as the #8 seed this Thursday May 14 with a home game against #9 seed Fox Lane at the Scarsdale turf at 4:30 pm.