The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Determined Rocky River girls set for final four
In lacrosse, a lot can happen in the blink of an eye.
For the Rocky River girls last year, months of hard work and determination ended in the blink of an eye as the Pirates fell in overtime to Walsh Jesuit and ended their run at a state title.
Almost a year later, Rocky River found itself right back in a regional final and were looking for redemption with Revere standing in its way. Doing what they’ve done all season, the Pirates put forth a total team effort and rolled into a state semifinal with a 9-5 victory May 26.
Coach Liz Steinmetz has seen her girls active and pushing for a spot in the state final four, a process that started from the minute the Pirates lost in overtime last season.
“It feels really good to be here,” Steinmetz said. “The girls put in a lot of work. We asked them in the summer and the fall, if they weren’t already participating in another sport, to just always have a stick in their hands and four or five days of the week. We had something going on.
“Whether it was a captain’s practice, weightlifting or spin class, just always doing something to make yourself a better lacrosse player we tried to offer to them so we could have these results.”
Putting in the effort to make her senior year one of the best in Rocky River history, attacker Emmy St. Pierre said the mindset of the team has been one of determination. She and the Pirates know they are worthy of being where they are — awaiting a date with Chagrin Falls on May 30 at Oberlin College with a trip to the state title game on the line.
“We just have this feeling of satisfaction fueled by our determination to get to the next round,” St. Pierre said. “We knew we belonged in the final four last year. We lost in overtime to Walsh. To put a decisive victory away against Revere, we knew we could do it and proved to ourselves that we could.”
The Pirates will come in with a wealth of knowledge against the Tigers. Meeting just a few weeks ago, Chagrin Falls handed Rocky River one of its few losses of the season, 14-7.
St. Pierre said the Pirates have only grown stronger, despite having ended up on the wrong side of the last few meetings.
“I think that we know that as a team we’ve always battled with Chagrin, but we’ve gone in with a difficult mindset for all of our games against them because they’re always a very challenging opponent against us,” St. Pierre said. “They’re a talented, wellcoached team, and they’re always a tough team to beat.
“But I think that going into this game, we’ve been practicing so hard and breaking down all sorts of film and looking at things we could have done differently. We’ve just improved so much, and I feel like our mindset as a team is way better than it was the last time we played them.”
Preparing her team for the 2017 Division II state runner-up, Steinmetz said it’s huge her team is more familiar with this opponent than if they were to face a fresh, new squad they only had film on.
Steinmetz believes the devil is in the details of how to beat one of the best lacrosse teams in the state.
“It’s very important that we know them and right now in practices, we’re making adjustments and we’re tweaking how we play to Chagrin Falls specifically, because they are a very good team and they’re very dominant,” Steinmetz said. “It’s very vital that we’ve played them before, even though we lost. We know who their players are and who they like to go to and we know what defenses they play.
“It’s very vital that we know the information and we can tweak how we’re going to approach the game on Wednesday.”
Steinmetz and the Pirates know they will have to go out and play their game if they want to succeed, but that’s what the Rocky River program is all about.
Each game, each goal, each draw, the Pirates are playing for one another to keep the dream of a state title alive with just two games separating them from making history.
“When we lost last year to Walsh in the overtime game, we took a couple of weeks off and came back in the summer,” Steinmetz said. “We set the bar right there in June that we want to go to state championship next year.
“That’s been our goal, and we’ve been ingraining that in their heads throughout the school year and throughout the year. They’ve bought in and they are working as hard as they can for not only themselves, but for each other, which is great.”