April 13, 2006 Issue                                               

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Springside lax opens against St. Bart’s of Britain
by TOM UTESCHER

Sophomore Nora Langan, who scored a hat trick for Springside

Upon returning from a training trip to Florida during spring break, Springside’s lacrosse team opened its season at home last week against a squad that had made a much longer journey, St. Bartholomew’s School of Newbury, England.

The U.K. club was first on the board April 4, but once the host Lions got on track they captured the lead and went on to win, 7-3, receiving a hat trick from sophomore Nora Langan and two goals from senior Emery Maine.

Junior Maeve Koch had nine saves in goal for the hosts, the same number posted by St. Bart’s keeper Jess McCarthy.

“It was a bit sloppy today for both teams,” observed Springside head coach Brooke Fritz. “The girls said the game felt very mechanical, instead of flowing the way it did in Florida. I think we had some first-game jitters.”

While on break, the local LAXers played games each of the six nights they were in St. Petersburg, spending their days attending lacrosse camp sessions or practicing on their own. Of course, there was also time for some R&R in the afternoons.

“I was pleased with our ball-possession skills down in Florida,” Fritz said. “For the first time since I’ve been at Springside, the defense is very confident with the ball, swinging it from side to side and working it up the field. I was also really happy with the goaltending; I think we had the two best goalies down there,” she said, referring to Koch and sophomore Tori Roebuck.

Starting in front of Koch are seniors Maggie Kyle and Alison Curry and junior Jess Griffin in the line defense, with senior Rachel Estepa and sophomore Julie Platt on the wings and Maine at center.

“Emery had to come home from Florida one day early,” Fritz said of Maine, a prolific four-year varsity player. “So on our last day down there other people had to go to goal and create things on offense, and that was good experience for us.”

Last week, the starting attack wings were Langan and senior Jane Gray, and the homes were sophomores Anna Hayne, Leslie Jacoby and Jamie Patchefsky. Senior defender Jenny Spann and sophomore midfielder Sophia Petrillo saw a lot of playing time coming off the bench.

This is actually the end of the lacrosse season for schoolgirls in the U.K.; they start in the fall term and play right through the winter. Although many of the teams that play in England are from “public” schools (ones we would call private or independent), St. Bartholomew’s is a national school, the equivalent of a public school in this country. Philly schools who like to tout their time-honored traditions would want to keep a low profile around this English institution, which traces its origins back to 1466.

Located in Berkshire, west of London and east of Oxford, St. Bart’s finished 16th at the All-England National Schools Championships last month. Berkshire boasts a number of formidable teams; national champ Downe House and runner-up St. Swithun’s hail from the same county.

The visitors broke the ice in their match at Springside as Laura Webster lobbed a pass inside to scorer Steph Webb with about five minutes gone. Springside, which would win 10 of the 12 center draws in the contest, tied it up less than a minute later as Maine drove in from the left to score.

Midway through the period, Langan got started on her hat trick with an assist from Platt, then St. Bart’s pulled even on Webb’s second goal, a solo effort this time. Two markers in the last two minutes gave the Lions a 4-2 lead at the half. Hayne fed from behind to set up Langan on the first one, then Jacoby maneuvered in to the front of the goal and put in a shovel shot.

Less than four minutes into the second period, Langan dodged several defenders to complete her hat trick, and with a little over 10 minutes remaining, Hayne made it a 6-2 game off an assist from Jacoby. With eight to go, Emma Harris gave St. Bart’s a third goal. Several times, visiting shooters saw goals called back when they committed crease violations on their follow-through; this is a U.S. rule that’s not on the books in England.

With 1:15 remaining, a pass from Gray found Maine in front of the cage, and she set the final score at 7-3.

It was the fourth game St. Bart’s had played in the United States, after three outings in the Washington area.

Commenting on the English and U.S. styles of play, St. Bart’s Webb said, “It’s quite similar, actually. I’d say that the stickwork is a bit better here. A few of the teams we played in Washington had two or three star players who had the ball the whole time; this team [Springside] passed the ball around more, used more of their players.”

The following day, the English team planned to go sightseeing in New York, then fly back across the Atlantic last Thursday.