Mount senior Cara Sheedy goes to goal. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

With so many disruptions due to inclement weather throughout March, it turned out that the first official game for the Mount St. Joseph Academy lacrosse team was also a league contest.

Travelling to Bryn Mawr last Tuesday to take on one of the smaller schools in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, the Magic needed a little while to get rolling against host Sacred Heart. By halftime, though, they were ahead 7-3, and they proceeded on to a 13-4 victory.

Two Mount seniors, Meredith Rickers and Cara Sheedy, started for the Mount, and the other 12th graders on the roster this spring are Nora Dougherty, Caroline Hladik and Erin Warth. Sheedy's father, Jim, is entering his second season as coach of the Magic.

There are only three juniors, but Erica Brocato, Krista Kushnerick and Liz Meister are all starters with plenty of experience. Meister's mother, Renee, is once again helping out as an assistant coach with the team.

Mount freshman Kennedy Cliggett (right) fires a shot past a Sacred Heart defender. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

The goalkeeping situation had been in flux, since the two current 11th graders who played in the MSJ cage last season did not come out for lacrosse this spring. Fortunately, there was a viable solution to this dilemma. Sophomore Bern Shields, who rowed for the MSJ crew as a freshman, decided to switch to lacrosse this year, and she had experience playing goalie in middle school lacrosse.

Last Tuesday her classmates, Brooke Blanche, Margaret Anne Borneman, Caroline Kelly and Kristen O'Connor, started along with her against Sacred Heart. O'Connor's twin sister, Carrie, was the first player to come in off the bench for the Magic.

There were two freshmen on the field when the game got underway. Kennedy Cliggett had already established herself as an impact player on the MSJ field hockey team last fall, and Elise Smigiel is a Norwood Fontbonne Academy graduate who had a strong season on the swim team over the winter.

In the win over Sacred Heart, Meister registered three goals and four assists, and Sheedy had two goals and two assists for the winners. Cliggett and Carrie O'Conner also scored twice for the Magic, and single goals came from Blanche, Borneman, Brocato and Kristen O'Connor. Shields was credited with four saves in net.