L’ville, Princeton, A’town, ND to square off in semifinals
The seeds have held, and the Mercer County Tournament semifinals look to be two of the most contested matches in recent years.
No. 1 seed and defending champion Lawrenceville (12-2) will meet No. 4 and surging Princeton (8-8) at 5 p.m. in Tuesday’s opener, and then another showdown between No. 2 Allentown (11-3) and No. 3 Notre Dame (11-1) will follow.
Both games are to be played at Notre Dame’s Msgr. Nolan Field.
The Big Red, who played Blair in the Prep A semifinals on Monday, haven’t dodged any opponents this season. They have played Sacred Heart (CT), Ridge, Hotchkiss (CT), Moorestown and Agnus Irwin (PA), and they have fared pretty well.
The Little Tigers will provide another good test as they have gone 7-3 over the last 10 games after starting the season at 1-5. The three defeats have been to Pingry, Monroe and Shawnee.
Lawrenceville is led by Annabelle Albert with 44 goals and 29 assists, Meg Hillman, who is all over the field making plays, adds 33 goals and 16 assists and Hannah Schur chips in with 20 goals and 17 assists.
Seven Lawrenceville players have double-digit goals as the team averages over 12 goals a game.
The Big Red has been getting solid work in the cage from Jeree Murray.
Marianna Lopez-Ona leads the scoring parade for the Little Tigers with 62 goals and 16 assists. LopezOna has 15 goals in the last four games and she is second in the county in goals behind Hopewell Valley’s Lauren Kingsbury.
Princeton has one of, if not, the premier passer in the state in Shaylah Marciano. Marciano is second in the state in assists with 60, and on Saturday in the quarterfinals she went over the 100 career assists mark. She has 29 assists in Princeton’s last five games. Marciano also has 32 goals.
The Little Tigers are far from a two-girl team, though.
Abaigeal Ryan has 35 goals, Kathryn DeMilt has 24 and Serena Bolitho has 19. The defense has risen to the occasion, too.
This one is going to come down to possession and turnovers. Whichever team can limit the turnovers should come out on top. ***
There are big games, and then there’s Allentown and Notre Dame.
Over the last few years this game has been the one all the players on both teams rise to a different level of intensity, pressure and both possess a fierce passion to win.
ND claimed their first state sectional title last year over the Redbirds in Allentown, and this regular season Allentown got the win, 7-3.
Throw in an MCT championship berth and the emotions should be even greater.
“We know the challenges are going to be great on Tuesday,’’ said ND coach Bryan Fisher. “We are excited that we get another chance and we are going to give it our best. We are still a very young team trying to figure in all out.’’
Allentown suffered a big loss in the BridgewarterRaritan game when Julianna Golden went down with a torn ACL. She is second on the team with 28 goals.
The leader for the Redbirds is four-year starter Marin Hartshorn with 39 goals and 14 assists. Kaitlyn Bergan has been solid with 26 goals and 16 assists and Brianna Samuels has 25.
The defense is led by Sierra Wojcik, Mary Bellotti and Abby Howell in the cage. Howell was spectacular in the regular season win with 11 saves.
Danielle Losier leads the Irish attack with 40 goals, Maddie Rizzuto has 23 and Gabby Skowronski, just a freshman, chips in with 18. Ava Scudillo, who missed the quarterfinal game with an injury, adds 12 goals and 14 assists.
Jess Pisani has 20 goals and a team-high 15 assists. The goaltending duties fall to Nicole Burney, who is coming off a shutout in the quarterfinals.
Every possession in this game will be critical.