Penn Charter senior tri-captains (from left) Macaul Mellor, Perri Keehfuss, and Courtney Cubbin. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

As the mid-March snow gradually disappeared from area playing fields, Penn Charter's girls' lacrosse team launched into its pre-season scrimmage schedule with a large number of returning varsity athletes and a head coach that now has a season of Quakers lax behind her.

Although last year's senior tri-captains will be missed, their departure was a modest blow compared to the previous year, when eight varsity players graduated. The 2016 team also had to adjust to head coach Colleen Magarity, who had outstanding credentials in lacrosse but was new to the PC program.

"We lost Meredith, Sarah, and Hannah and obviously we'll miss them a bunch," Magarity remarked, "But we have a lot of people with experience coming back."

This spring a new trio of current seniors will serve as team captains, Courtney Cubbin, Perri Keehfuss, and Macaul Mellor. Keehfuss is still in process of making her college pick, while her fellow captains are both committed to play lacrosse, Mellor at the University of Colorado Boulder and Cubbin at Haverford College.

The other seniors on the varsity squad are Hannah Griffith and Alex Kuper, and there are four juniors, Laura Bleiler, Christmas Cotter, Greer Guyer (who is temporarily on the injured list), and Alexis Joseph (a defender who already verbally committed to Duke University a year ago).

Kuper's sister Hannah is a member of the sophomore contingent, along with Molly Visco and Emma Wilson.

The freshman class is actually the largest, with six ninth-graders earning spots on the varsity roster right from the get-go. Two of them already belonged to the top team last year as eighth graders. Hayley Hunt, who started in goal for the varsity while still in middle school, has already made a commitment to Stony Brook University. The other experienced freshman is Mackenzie McDonough, daughter of longtime Penn Charter boys' lacrosse head coach Pat McDonough.

The other ninth-graders are Kait Carter, Vanessa Ewing, Lizzie McLaughlin, and Leah Sax. Carter and McLaughlin are new Penn Charter students who both played varsity basketball over the winter and who should be able to pick up their new stick sport pretty quickly. Once again Coach Magarity has brought an eighth-grade player up onto the varsity squad; this year it's Kaylee Dyer.

Although many of the players have already spent a year under her system, Magarity noted "We're still building on the fundamentals. I don't think you can ever get so good that you can ignore the basics; catching, throwing, the transition game."

For a scrimmage last Tuesday, the Quakers hosted Parkland High School, whose campus north of Allentown was still largely snowbound. In the first half Penn Charter would go ahead by a point or two, but then leak goals at the other end. Just before halftime, the visiting Trojans levelled the score at 5-5.

The Quakers buckled down in the second half and separated themselves from the Lehigh Valley ladies as Mellor, Cubbin, and the young Dyer each recorded a hat trick. Visco scored twice, and Keehfuss and Ewing added one goal apiece.

Magarity commented, "We do a lot of stickwork in practice, and we work a lot on shooting so we can be ready when those opportunities are there for us."

Later last week the Quakers went on a road trip to Virginia, where they were slated to play a match against the Collegiate School and then observe 2015 PC grad Avery Shoemaker play for the University of Virginia against Duke in Charlottesville on Saturday. Springside Chestnut Hill Academy graduate Kitty Morrissey is a senior on the Duke team.