Archive for June, 2012
June 30, 2012 — An appreciation: Pat Genovese, head women’s lacrosse coach, William Smith College
One in a series.
This past week was the 40th anniversary of Title IX. And just a few months before Richard Nixon signed that bit of legislation, a lacrosse team in Geneva, N.Y. was embarking on its first season.
William Smith College has had a distinguished, yet star-crossed history in the ranks of the AIAW and the NCAA. The team played some great lacrosse between 1991 and 2005, making the NCAA Tournament every year but once, and appearing in four straight NCAA championship games.
And the team lost all four championship games to what was then Trenton State College. And it is difficult to parse out which of the four losses was the most devastating.
It might have been 1992, when TSC won the game 5-3 on the pitch only to have its title vacated for using an ineligible player. It might have been 1994, when William Smith was on the losing end of a 29-11 scoreline, still the largest margin of defeat in any women’s NCAA lacrosse championship game.
It might have been either of the one-goal defeats in 1993 or 1995, but it is the latter that sickens the hearts of Heron supporters. William Smith had been up three goals with under nine minutes remaining and started running a stall. On three separate occasions over the next 7 1/2 minutes, Beth Watov made three steals of the ball, leading to Trenton State goals. With the game tied at 13-13, the Lions won the next draw, leading to Melanie Vasofski’s game-winner, after which TSC ran a perfect stall to close out the contest.
Pat Genovese lived these moments over the course of a 39-year career. She coached basketball and field hockey at the school as well, demanding and getting the best out of her players.
Genovese will be retiring from coaching after her Herons posted a 9-9 season and bowing out of the Liberty League postseason tournament with a semifinal loss to Rensselaer. To give you some perspective, RPI’s program only started in 1992.
Her consistent fight and determination, always asking for more and better from her teams, is something that is missing now that lacrosse has mushroomed around the country, and there are fewer regionally dominant teams.
As one of the last multi-sport coaches to retire, we’re losing a bit of not only Title IX history, but sports history. She’ll be missed.
June 29, 2012 — Could this be the situation that upsets the NCAA’s tax-exempt applecart?
Today, this story came out, and the cuts were called the deepest of any major university.
And all this while spending money on the university president’s mansion and the schools football field.
Something is not right.
And if you read to the end of the story, someone might be stepping in — particularly given the fact that there is a President of the United States who cares about sports and their role in society.
June 28, 2012 — Shaking the trees
The National Futures Tournament is usually good for human-interest stories about players who have taken non-traditional paths in their development through the U.S. apparatus., such as people this site has encountered in the past such as Amrit Chima, Julia Young and Stephanie Hussey.
This year, however, there appeared to be more of these kinds of players on successful teams at the NFT.
On the gold-winning side in the U-16 tournament was Sarah Ladoceur, a player from New York Brearley School (N.Y.). In the old format, and with the old way that top players were identified through Futures, players from Manhattan wouldn’t normally get a second look. But thanks in part to the bolstering of the New York City Futures site at Columbia University, Ladoceur is a national champion today.
Also part of the tournament this year was Morgan Nash, who is amongst a growing number of players in small, independent field hockey schools in Texas such as her own Houston Duchesne Academy (Tex.), and who are playing in rapidly improving club sides such as Texas Pride. Nash was on the silver-winning U-19 Cortina side.
Also part of the tournament were players such as Jessica Niccum, who plays for a club near her home in Simi Valley, Calif. She’s part of the Ventura County development apparatus surrounding the Moorpark College field hockey site.
Looking also at rosters of the NFT, there were a number of players from towns which have had downtrodden scholastic programs, such as Hazleton and Pittston, Pa. I think a lot of it could be the fact that nearly 100 of the top Futures players were already competing in the Futures Elite and the Women’s National Championship tournaments, but I think there’s been a sea-change in how some regional selections are made.
That, I think, is a good thing.
June 27, 2012 — Futures Elite Championship: Germany 2, Australia 1
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Inako Puzo and Justine Sowry, the co-coaches of Team Germany of the Futures Elite Championship, knew they had enough attacking talent that they could move strikers like Casey Dinardo of Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) and Charlotte Martin of St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.) to defense, even against an Australia team with the likes of Plymouth Wyoming Valley West (Pa.) stalwart Kelcie Hromicin, Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.) sniper Cat Caro, and Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) prodigy Austyn Cuneo.
“Justine and I have the same philosophy; we need a strong backs in order to build the team,” Puzo said. “Now, here in these tournaments, the more skilled players are on the forward line. They are skilled and smart with and without the ball, and they were willing to try and fill the spots on defense.”
And in the final nine minutes of the gold-medal match between the two teams, Martin made Puzo and Sowry look like geniuses. Martin scored a fine penalty corner goal at the 61:57 mark and made a last-minute tackle to end the last Australia possession as Germany beat Australia 2-1 of the inaugural Futures Elite Championship.
Unlike the Junior Women’s National Championship of years past, the players are not put on teams by region or by their high-performance center. The randomly-chosen teams are assigned two college coaches each, and play full Test matches instead of the shortened 50-minute matches that the age-group Futures teams play.
That means the FEC teams are at the National Training Center for a longer period of time than most USFHA-hosted events; the tournament lasted eight days, including the rest day in between the final day of pool play and the final.
In this year’s tournament, both teams used that final rest day to mull over what they needed to do to improve after Monday night’s 2-0 Germany win.
“We just wanted to keep the same mentality we had all week,” Martin said. “Just to play hard and finish strong.”
“To win six out of six games at this level — where inconsistency is there all the time — is impressive,” says Puzo, the Miami of Ohio head coach. “A final usually is an ugly game, because teams are more concerned with not losing the championship than winning the championship. And that’s what happened to us today. Australia put a lot of pressure on us, and forced a lot of mistakes on our side. But full credit to Australia’s team; they set up a great press and made it difficult to outlet the ball clean. They were very well-coached.”
Australia was co-coached by Tracey Griesbaum and Char Morett, and, like in the final pool match, was able to run a high line against Germany. And similar to Monday night’s game, Australia had its chances. But even though Oz had fallen a goal adrift by the interval, it came through in the 55th minute thanks to a Caro deflection in front.
“I was really proud of our team and the great effort that they showed,” Morett said.
FULL TIME At the horn, Germany beats Australia 2-1
70:00 Australia gets it into the attack zone but Martin with an heroic tackle to end the last threat
69:15 Tara Vittese takes it to the corner flag and whittles the clock
68:15 GER PC Low shot is defensed!
67:30 GER PC Kate Barber takes it in and it’s saved
61:57 GER PC and GOAL Charlotte Martin’s backhander unties it! Germany leads 2-1
61:43 AUS YELLOW CARD Umstead is out for five minutes, not what you want in a tie game
59:50 GER PC Newak shoots, Piersanti saves
59:10 Vittese and Alyssa Manley are in 2-v-1 and Piersanti sprawls to make the stop!
54:40 AUS PC and GOAL Cat Caro takes a pass in the D and deflects it home! Game tied, 1-1
51:00 Australia is applying the pressure but not able to get off a telling shot
43:00 AUS PC Yumi Kim’s dragflick is saved
42:00 Hromisin has a sliver of space on the break but McCarthy finds herself on the left wing on the backhand with nowhere to shoot
41:30 GER PC flubbed insert and Australia now has a snowbird
40:00 GER GREEN CARD Australia now has a two-minute advantage
39:00 GER PC First shot goes into the mesh; does not count
38:15 GER PC A pass play is bottled up by the Oz defense
36:45 Almost immediately, Jessica Unger is bearing down on the Aussie goal and a tackle by goalie Christen Piersanti saves the day
36:30 AUS PC Shot saved by Rebecca Holden
35:00 The second half is under way
HALFTIME Australia had a pair of golden chances in the first half, but Germany boxed in Kelcie Hromisin in the center of the park whenever she got the ball. The late Germany goal counts double because of the psychological advantage it affords the team that scores it
HALFTIME At the interval, Germany has a 1-0 lead
34:40 GER PC and GOAL Jess Newak takes a left-option pass from Tara Vittese and buries it; Germany leads 1-0
31:00 AUS PC A pair of long Casey Umstead attempts, one forehand and one backhand, are defensed
29:40 AUS PC Shot at the left post missed by Jessica McCarthy
28:20 GER PC is mistrapped at the top of the circle
26:15 GER PC Charlotte Martin hits the outside of the cage with her left-angled shot
25:45 GER PC Shot blocked away by Sydney Supica
25:00 GER PC Kate Barber’s shot blocked
24:10 AUS GREEN CARD and Germany is up for two minutes
23:50 AUS PC Leathers shot is judged to be dangerous
23:09 Cuneo with an open shot for Australia that is saved!
20:00 GER PC Shot blocked by Delaney Leathers
19:40 GER PC Vittese pass blocked; will reset
17:00 GER PC Tara Vittese denied at the doorstep!
15:15 AUS PC Blocked over the top
14:00 GER PC Passing play leads to a shot over the top
13:30 GER PC is sticked away off the line!
9:55 GER PC Shay Cannon’s shot is blocked
3:37 Australia’s Austyn Cuneo breaks in from the left wing and shovels it wide!
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Germany are in the navy jerseys with gray socks, while Australia are in the green jerseys with black socks
PREGAME It’s gotten hot in Virginia Beach, but not quite as humid as earlier in the week, with the temperature nearing 85 degrees
PREGAME Team Australia has a pair of player from the dominant high-school program in the United States the last decade and a half, Voorhees Eastern (N.J.). Look through the rosters of the FEC teams, and you’ll see six players out of the 96 athletes from Eastern. The team also has plenty of players from Eastern’s rivals, such as Cat Caro from Bridgewater-Raritan (N.J.) and Jessica Unger from Emmaus (Pa.). Another couple of players to watch for Oz is Kelcie Hromisin, who plays her ball at Plymouth Wyoming Valley West (Pa.), and Sydney Supica from Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.).
PREGAME The Germany team has dominated pool play and with good reason. The team has the prodigious talent of rising junior Tara Vittese, who had a scintillating field goal in a 2-0 win over Australia in the pool stage of this tournament. Kate Barber of St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.), who is going to be the fourth player in the history of the National Federation to have at least 100 assists, is also on this team. Charlotte Martin of Barber’s rival school John Burroughs, is also an important figure on this team as well as Shay Cannon from Wilmington Tatnall (Del.).
PREGAME Back now at the National Training Center for the final of the Futures Elite Championship, featuring Germany and Australia
June 27, 2012 — U-19 final: Innsbruck 2, Cortina 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Tuesday evening the U-19 Innsbruck Futures team was in deep trouble in a semifinal match against Helsinki. They were down 2-0 in the first half before rallying to win 3-2.
That showed head coach Paul Lewis a lot — not only about the team’s visible abilities, but their intangibles.
“They don’t give up,” Lewis said. “We fell behind in a pair of games; ball-wise, we were winning, but we weren’t getting the goals. But they want to win, and they worked themselves out of every situation. That’s something you just can’t teach.”
And against a Cortina team which had been the class of the U-19 field, Team Innsbruck got a first-half penalty stroke and a second-half penalty corner for a 2-0 gold-medal victory.
Innbruck goalie Emily Horwitz out of Wilmington (Del.) Friends, the only keeper that the team had available for the final, withstood everything Cortina threw at them.
“You just show up, and you may have a chance to talk to them through email,” Lewis said. “We knew that Katie Osborne would have to leave a day early. But both of our keepers did an excellent job throughout the tournament.”
On the attack end, fellow Delawarian Christina Freibott out of Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.) was outstanding. She had a first-half penalty stroke in the effort and also created a number of scoring chances through skills and a deadly shot.
“We’re really big competitors, so we just wanted to get that first goal,” Freibott said. “Once we did, it was pretty easy.”
FULL TIME At the final horn, Innsbruck wins the gold medal, 2-0
48:10 Deena sweeps in off the left side and knocks a backhand over the goal
44:45 Cortina pulls its goalie for a kicking back
44:30 COR PC Courtney Deena’s angle shot is wide
44:30 COR PC The ball is momentarily loose in the circle but Cortina cannot send it in; we’ll reset
36:00 INS PC Hi-lo to the left wing is stopped by Defnet
35:30 INS PC Adler’s option-right is duffed, but Innsbruck gets another chance
35:00 INS PC Adler’s shot deflected; will reset
32:00 INS PC Shots from Brooke Adler and Freibott are stopped by Cortina GK Amy Defnet
28:45 INS PC and GOAL A deflected ball from Kimberley Sportack goes high into the cage and Innsbruck leads 2-0
25:00 The second half is under way
HALFTIME At the horn, Innsbruck leads Cortina 1-0
23:10 INS PC Caroline Phillips’ shot is defensed
22:00 COR PC The pass right leads to a tackle by Innsbruck
17:30 INS PS and GOAL Christina Freibott converts and Innsbruck leads 1-0
16:45 Innsbruck on the advance and Cortina’s defense is untidy; a stroke is called!
15:00 COR PC Nash flicks again and Katelynn Mudgett blasts it wide; Cortina has missed a lot of chances thus far
14:00 COR PC Morgan Nash’s flick and Carolyn Dyer’s rebound are stopped by GK Emily Horwitz
12:30 INS PC Christina Freibott’s huge shot goes wide
11:30 INS PC Brooke Adler’s shot tipped wide!
7:10 INS PC An option left leads to a weak pass that is cut out by the Cortina defense
5:45 COR PC An option-right eliminates the flyer, but the ball bounds wide
4:10 Zoe Kale tries a deep angle for Innsbruck, but goalie Dana Dhami is equal
1:30 Meghan Fenton tries a deep backhand flick for Cortina, but the shot goes over the goal
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Innsbruck is in the green with black socks and numbers, while Cortina is in the white with gray socks
PREGAME The teams are warming up under bright skies with the temperature at 79 degrees
PREGAME Cortina has been the team to watch through pool play, but were almost derailed in the semifinal round. Antwerp held Cortina to a 0-0 draw, but lost 4-2 in a penalty-stroke shootout. Cortina is led by Lewes Cape Henlopen (Del.) product Jackie Coveleski, Emmaus (Pa.) stalwart Allison Mikelson, and Radnor Notre Dame (Pa.) product Emily Faught. Cortina also has a budding star in Morgan Nash, who plays for the nascent Houston Duchesne Academy (Tex.) varsity program
PREGAME Back now at the National Training Center in Virginia Beach for the championship final of the U-19 division, as Innsbruck takes on Cortina. Innsbruck, had an awesome comeback in its semifinal match after falling two goals adrift to Helsinki, winning 3-2 to get to this point
June 27, 2012 — U-16 final: Beijing 1, Grenoble 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – In this, the second year that the National Futures Tournament has gone to a non-regional basis for filling out its roster of 16 teams, Jamie Ginsberg has hit upon a formula for bringing together a team in a short period of time.
“From Day 1, I kept telling everyone, ‘You are here because you are very good individually, and the thing that is going to make us different is if we play as a team,’ ” said the Smith College head coach. “Once they got that nervousness out of the way, they played as a team and they trusted each other.”
Part of that formula: timely goalkeeping. Kristen Templeton, late of Virginia Beach Kellam (Va.) withstood a barrage of first-half shots and Hailey Valerio from Glen Mills Garnet Valley (Pa.) made a pair of acrobatic second-half saves as Beijing shut out a very good Grenoble team 1-0.
“You know, they rock-paper-scissored to see who would start, and they rotated from Day 1 to the end,” Ginsberg said.
Beijing’s game-winning goal in the game’s 15th minute from Louisville Ballard (Ky.) product Sara Wilder, which was the counterpoint to 17 Grenoble penalty corners.
Many of the shots on goal were generated from the likes of Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) products Jade Dixon and and Madison Murano, as well as Yorktown Tabb (Va.) players Kara Enoch and Melissa Progar.
“The key to our focus was to organize my defense, making sure they played together, and play as a team,” Templeton said. “I had to make sure that our defense was confident in my play, so that we could accomplish a lot.”
“We just weren’t executing on our corners, but we didn’t get that slight bit of luck to go our way,” said Grenoble head coach Pam Spuehler.
Aside from the goalkeepers’ heroics, Whitney Point (N.Y.) product Amanda Collins had a tremendous match on the offensive and defensive ends of the pitch.
“She just wanted us to keep our sticks down and work hard, and I was nervous at first because I thought they were going to score,” said Collins. “Eventually, we did get it out of there and down the other end of the field and we scored.”
Also, the pace and skill of Selena Garzio, late of Hazleton (Pa.) Area, cannot be discounted. Her ability to advance the ball after Grenoble’s surges helped lead to Beijing’s goal.
FULL TIME At the final horn, Beijing wins 1-0
48:00 GRE PC Shot is wedged under Elizabeth Mata and Beijing is awarded the free hit, coming out
47:30 GRE PC Shot blocked high by Sara Wilder; will reset
47:00 Grenoble pulls the goalie for an 11th field player
45:00 Beijing’s Amanda Collins makes the clear; she is having a good game at both ends of the field
43:45 BEI PC Millicent Stefanowicz sends it wide
40:15 Grenoble angled shot hits the outside of the cage; can they tie it?
39:30 BEI PC Option left is flubbed
37:00 Amanda Collins of Beijing hooks a backhand wide
36:00 BEI PC Selena Garzio drives it wide
34:30 Dixon smacks the ball in, but it hit a teammate’s foot on the way
33:00 Grenoble takes it baseline and has a player wide open at the stroke mark but they don’t see her
31:30 GRE PC On a hi-lo, Dixon misses the cage!
30:50 GRE PC Valerio stops another long shot
30:30 Dixon’s shot is saved off the line by Valerio!
30:15 GRE PC Jade Dixon’s diagonal pass finds nobody and goes over the end line
28:00 Morano on a break up the field; has a teammate at full left forward but doesn’t see her; Beijing goalie Hailey Valerio snuffs out the shot attempt
25:00 The second half is under way
HALFTIME At the half, Beijing leads Grenoble 1-0 despite being outshot and outcornered
21:30 GRE PC A hi-lo from Morano to Madison Cummings is cleared!
20:15 GRE PC Morano is denied by Templeton once more; the team may need to get a bit more creative to get past this goalkeeper
19:00 GRE PC Kara Enoch’s shot is defensed by Templeton again!
16:49 GRE PC Grenoble mistraps the insert; the third straight corner without a shot generated
15:00 BEI PC and GOAL Just like that, Sara Wilder converts on the 1-up. Beijing leads 1-0
13:50 GRE PC An option left results in a whiff; Grenoble cannot afford to waste chances
12:45 GRE PC A searching ball finds Alexandra Frary at the doorstep, but cannot get a shot away
10:40 GRE PC Templeton makes another stop; she’s keeping her side in it thus far
7:00 BEI PC Low drive is cleared by the Grenoble defense
6:10 Kaitlyn Rennyson is on the doorstep, but Julia Ennis with a sprawling save!
4:39 GRE PC Morano’s hard shot is kicked away by Templeton again
3:30 GRE PC is sticked away by Sarah Ladoceur
3:00 GRE PC Madison Morano’s shot is saved by Templeton
2:00 GRE PC goes wide of the cage
1:30 GRE PC is saved by Kristen Templeton
0:30 Julia Murphy’s through pass for Beijing goes over the end line
0:00 The game is on
PREGAME Grenoble is wearing the blue uniforms with white numbers and black socks, Beijing is in the white with grey socks
PREGAME The teams are warming up under a slight glare from the morning sun. It’s cool and breezy, with a tempearature of around 63
PREGAME Beijing found itself needing a little help in getting out of its pool into the upper half of the knockout round, then won a semifinal match 4-0 against Tokyo. Beijing is coached by Jamie Ginsberg, who was herself coached in the prep ranks by former U.S. national teamer Nancy (Zurn) Bernardini.
PREGAME Grenoble, who needed a pair of one-goal wins to get to the championship game, is coached by Ohio University assistant coach Pam Spuehler. Players to watch include rising junior Jade Dixon and incoming freshman Madison Morano from Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) as well as two players from Yorktown Tabb (Va.), Melissa Progar and Kara Enoch. Let’s refocus you on these four players: Eastern and Tabb finished 1-2 in the TopOfTheCircle.com Top 10 last fall
PREGAME Hello, and welcome to the championship final of the U-16 division of the National Futures Tournament, featuring Team Beijing and Team Grenoble
June 26, 2012 — Cometh the “B” side, cometh the “A”
Yesterday, the Argentina Hockey Confederation announced the 16 women who are going to make up their Olympic side next month in London.
There are only four changes from the side that the United States defeated in October in the Pan American Games. The new players are goalkeepers Florencia Mutio and Laura Del Colle, and outfielders Florence Habif and Martina Cavallero.
Two of the changes were of necessity. The goalkeeping has been in a bit of a chaotic situation since Belen Succi announced she was pregnant, and it was made known that veteran attacking midfielder Soledad Garcia was not in head coach Carlos Retegui’s future plans.
It does make you wonder, however, what the purpose of Argentina putting out its “B” side for last week’s tour of the United States was if so few changes were actually made; there were rumors that anywhere from six to 10 Olympic slots were up for grabs. Of course, you can argue that it was a good run-out for drag-flick specialist Noel Barrionuevo, who is coming back from knee surgery.
But what it also does is should put some doubt into the heads of Argentina’s pool opponents in the upcoming Olympics. If that touring side — without FIH World Player of the Year Luciana Aymar, and stars like Carla Rebecchi, Rosario Lucchetti, and Sofia Maccari — can take a win and two draws from the U.S. on away soil last week, what does Argentina have up its collective sleeve for London?
June 25, 2012 — The guilt should be spread around
Late Friday night, former Penn State football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 criminal counts regarding his contacts with at least 10 boys over the course of two decades.
There are a lot of folks who wish this entire thing is over with this one conviction, that it is all going to go away — the questions, the cameras, the whispers, the immense damage done to a university’s culture.
But Sandusky is just one figure in this entire tale. There’s his boss, the legendary football coach Joe Paterno. There are people in the athletic department, the school administration, and even university president Graham Spanier who have been besmirched by the Sandusky scandal.
I was talking about this with an acquaintance last night at a restaurant, trying to find some context and perspective.
The conversation started when he saw a middle-aged man in the parking lot of the establishment, one who was rumored in the community to have had indecent liberties with a child.
But like in most communities in the United States, even one ranked as one of the five safest places for children according to some metrics, the conversation pretty much ended there; very few people would have a discussion about this situation in reputable company.
Which, to me, is the first step in the entire problem when it comes to child sexual abuse — admitting that there is a problem.
I told my friend about the prevalence of media stories regarding teachers having sexual relations with students, and how at least one website was tracking an average of more than one story per day (which, given the pullback of coverage in newspapers nowadays, makes you wonder how many incidents go unreported).
We came to an consensus: parenting matters. We’ve gone from a nation of latchkey kids to a nation of helicopter parents who are willing to put our sons and daughters in the hands of sitters, coaches, and tutors. Sometimes it’s to give the parent a break from having to supervising the child. In other cases, it’s to give their kid an advantage over his or her peers in a school subject or a sport.
The problem is, most parents aren’t actually doing parenting. They can tell kids what they shouldn’t do, but very few pair it with an action item — what they should do in response.
Dealing with the future Sanduskys of the world is going to involve a lot more than the justice system; child sexual abuse is, I think, a massive public mental health issue that, frankly, very few people in our society are prepared to deal with.
And for that, we’re all guilty.
June 24, 2012 — A touch of magic
Yesterday during the USA-Argentina Test in Virginia Beach, Paige Selenski latched onto a bouncing ball behind the Argentina defense, settled it, faked right, went left, and snaked a backhand shot into the goal cage.
It was an act that took perhaps seven seconds, but there was so much encapsulated in this quality finish.
First, there was the anticipation that the pass, coming off a midfield steal, would be mistrapped by Argentina. And, it was, allowing Selenski to win the ball about 18 yards from goal.
Selenski then withstood a tackle to secure the ball in the attack zone. Seizing her moment, she made a right-left dodge that would have made Lionel Messi proud.
The shot was a backhand that found the lower corner. The crowd of more than 3,000 sounded twice as loud. And it should have.
It was a scintillating piece of brilliance, craft, cunning, and skill that rates at the top of any goal I’ve ever witnessed anyone scoring in a U.S. women’s field hockey uniform.
If I’d been a Spanish-language soccer announcer, I might been hanging outside of the commentary box. The goal was that good.
June 23, 2012 — Futures U-14 Championship: Lake Placid 3, St. Louis 0
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – When Laura Baker’s Lake Placid U-14 Futures team finished pool play, it was in a three-way tie for first, and the team felt lucky to have made the medal round thanks to a goal differential one better than the drop zone.
Lake Placid made the most of its second chance, defeating the opposite pool winner Calgary 2-1 on Friday morning, then running out 3-0 winners over St. Louis in the championship final.
Ultimately, what made Lake Placid’s performance memorable was not necessarily the volume of goals of the way they were scored, but when they were scored. The Lakers scored all of their goals in the first two minutes or the last two minutes of the 25-minute running-time halves that are customary in this competition.
Lake Placid started off matters with a goal-mouth scramble that wound up in the goal on the first shot of the game, then held off a considerable period of St. Louis pressure. But once that pressure let up, Lake Placid earned a corner in the dying minutes of the first half. The initial shot on that corner was saved, but Kyler Greenwalt rescued the ball at an angle on the right wing and fed a nice diagonal to teammate Allie Grace Joyner, who made no mistake from inside the circle.
“Getting that goal before halftime makes everything more relaxing,” Greenwalt said. “It makes going into the half more positive.”
Territorially, the second half was controlled primarily by the leaders, but St. Louis tried its best. However, a Lake Placid defense led by Elise Wong held on very firmly. Ultimately, Greenwalt netted the Lakers’ third less than two minutes from the end.
“That’s when you want to score those kinds of goals,” said Baker, a former player at Virginia Commonwealth University who is now that school’s assistant coach. “They were really nice to work with.”
FULL TIME At the final horn, Lake Placid is the U-14 champion with a 3-0 victory
48:55 LP GOAL Kyler Greenwalt scores and it’s all but over now; Lake Placid leads 3-0
47:00 LP PC Is defensed by Trabaudo
42:00 STL PC And they can’t get off a good shot on this opportunity; they can’t waste too many more chances
30:30 St. Louis break after the fluffed corner leads to an open Jamie Trabaudo shot that goes off the outside of the goal frame; unlucky!
30:00 LP PC Weak shot cleared by Rennyson; a snowbird develops
29:00 LP PC Low shot is saved nicely by Callie Rennyson
26:40 STL GREEN Mackenzie Keegan is off for two minutes
25:00 The second half is under way
HALFTIME At the horn, Lake Placid has a two-goal lead and all the momentum. But as we all know, the U-14 division can be unpredictable. The next goal could be a game-changer
23:00 LP PC and GOAL After Cassie Kincaid’s initial save, Kyler Greenwalt rescues the rebound and makes a diagonal into the circle, whereupon Allie Grace Joyner converts! It’s 2-0 Lake Placid
15:45 STL PC save by LP goalie Gianna Glatz
12:00 STL PC Haley Schleichler slings it off a Lake Placid foot for a long hit
8:00 STL PC A left-option around the horn goes out of bounds
1:30 LP GOAL A dream start as Lake Placid puts one in from a scramble! It’s 1-0 Lake Placid
PREGAME Lake Placid is in the white with black kilts and gray socks, while St. Louis is in the pink with white numbers and black socks
PREGAME These may not be names you know now, but it is notable that when the inaugural Futures U-14 championship was held a decade ago, the dominant player in the final was a very young Michelle Vittese, who is now on the U.S. Olympic team.
PREGAME Neither participant in this final won their pool; Lake Placid won its semifinal berth by goal differential, and beat the only undefeated team, Calgary, yesterday morning
PREGAME We’re back at the National Training Center in Virginia Beach, Va. as Lake Placid takes on St. Louis. Lake Placid won its way to the final by beating Calgary 2-1, while St. Louis punched its ticket with a 1-0 win over Atlanta
