‘We got pumped for this one’
Top-ranked Gators hold on after a fast start
Top-ranked St. Paul’s girls lacrosse entered Friday’s matchup with Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference foe Notre Dame Prep as the defending conference champion and, what’s more, the nation’s consensus No. 1 team.
A growing pile of accolades, however, couldn’t make the Gators forget their only recent pitfall — a loss last April to Notre Dame Prep that was the lone blemish on an otherwise perfect season.
“We got pumped for this one, especially after last year’s game,” St. Paul’s senior Kendall Steer said.
And it showed, as the visiting Gators scored four of the first five goals and never relinquished that lead in a 16-12 win over No. 7 Notre Dame Prep, the No. 7 team in the Nike/USA Lacrosse National Girls Top 25 and No. 8 in Inside Lacrosse’s ILWomen Top 25.
Steer, a Georgetown-bound midfielder, was one of three Gators to score three goals each, along with juniors Karina Herrera and Natalie Shurtleff, as they built a 9-4 lead by late in the first half. Despite five goals by NDP senior Emily Peek (Johns
Hopkins), the Blazers managed to only get within three in the second half.
The Gators (5-0, 3-0 IAAM A) managed to fire off 27 shots — a stark contrast from a year ago, when they fell behind early and could never find their rhythm in a 10-9 loss to NDP.
“I think it was a lesson last year,” St. Paul’s coach Mary Gagnon said. “They came in and I remember we didn’t handle their run very good in the beginning of that game, then we had to fight all the way back. We talked about that — putting yourself in a bad spot, and then having to battle. So we tried to jump out to a better start.”
The Gators also worked in practice to figure out NDP’s zone defense, which last year allowed the fewest goals in the A Conference.
“The girls have gotten more used to seeing it, and I think we did a really good job against their zone,” Gagnon said.
Despite losing 17 seniors to graduation, St. Paul’s looked like a cohesive unit, with players time and again sacrifice risky shots for the extra pass.
“I think we’re just playing as a team,” Steer said. “We don’t put any focus on one certain person. We don’t have one certain play that we do. When you look at our stat sheet, you’ll see a lot of different scorers every game, and I think that’s what makes this team so special. Everyone is a threat.”