Maloney leads L’ville past PDS
PRINCETON » The cage must be looking like the Grand Canyon to Tess Maloney these days.
Coming off a hat trick in Connecticut against Rosemary Choate Hall, the Lawrenceville senior duplicated the feat against Princeton Day.
“We all played well as a team,” said Maloney, after the Big Red took a 5-1 decision from the Panthers in a prep contest played on PDS’ Smoyer Field.
“Things went our way today,” added Maloney. “I got a lot of good passes from teammates and we executed well.”
The game was a rematch of the 2016 Mercer County Tournament final won 3-0 by the Big Red.
Lawrenceville (3-4) took a 2-1 lead into halftime over PDS (6-3) and then scored three goals in the first 5:29 of the second half to grab the 5-1 advantage.
“Heather (Farlow) has a great program and so many of the kids know each other and that adds to the excitement,” said Lawrenceville coach Lisa Ewanchyna. “Often records don’t always reflect the strength of teams. We came out hard and PDS has some very skilled players so it took a little while to get started.”
Maloney, headed to Ohio State next fall, got things started for the Big Red with a rocket from the right side. Then when she was awarded a penalty stroke, she chose the left side for a 2-0 lead with 12:56 left in the first half.
Sasha Sindhwani converted a penalty stroke at the 7:26 mark for PDS.
“We have played six games in 12 days and we have been grinding it out,” said PDS coach Heather Farlow. “The score doesn’t reflect how hard we worked in this game. We played hard and the first five minutes of the second half was the difference.”
Maloney, Meg Hillman and Annie Mckirgan all scored in the second half. Meg Barnes had an assist for the Big Red.
“This is a big game for us and we like to get pumped for this one,” said Maloney, who has nine goals on the season. “We really wanted this game and we came out hard.”
Goalies Maddie Zelenik for Lawrenceville and PDS’ Lexie Hausheer, the reigning Trentonian Prep Goalie of the Year, both recorded 14 saves.
“We told them at halftime that you have to stop watching this game and this was a winnable game,” said Ewanchyna of the second half outburst. “We had to move the ball and use each other and we did. Moving the ball was the difference.”