{"id":96375,"date":"2024-05-23T13:35:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T13:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=96375"},"modified":"2024-05-23T13:35:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T13:35:07","slug":"wrhs-girls-varsity-lacrosse-earns-state-playoff-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/05\/23\/wrhs-girls-varsity-lacrosse-earns-state-playoff-berth\/","title":{"rendered":"WRHS girls' varsity lacrosse earns state playoff berth"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 It takes 10 regular-season victories to qualify for the upcoming MIAA State Tournament, and with their tenth win in hand following a 13-10 defeat of visiting Ashland High, the Wachusett Regional High girls’ varsity lacrosse team proved they\u2019re in it to win it, say team players and coaches. And who can fault them?<\/p>\n

The green and white turned a respectable season record into an extraordinary one by rattling off five straight (six of seven) wins beginning at the halfway juncture of the 2024 campaign. The team\u2019s only defeat in that period came at the hands of a tough Nashoba Regional squad that edged Wachusett by a single point margin, 12-11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s definitely a good accomplishment for us. Going into the season we set goals,\u201d said senior co-captain Rileigh Leary, who will be enrolling in the U.S. Coast Guard in the fall. \u201cSince I\u2019ve been here, we\u2019ve never made it to the state tournament. Being a senior, this was one of my priorities. With 10 games and more to come, I think we should go in as a pretty good seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely confident that we could put a winning streak together like that. I\u2019m just glad we can show everybody that we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what contributes to our success this year is being able in life to adjust,\u201d said fourth-year head coach Jill Liposky. \u201cIn life you\u2019re going to have difficult challenges, and it\u2019s important to adjust those challenges as a whole. We had a tough loss earlier in the week against Nashoba, but if we can learn from our mistakes, I can accept the loss. What we challenge ourselves with is bringing things to the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence in my team, so throughout the whole season, I let the girls adjust for themselves. They\u2019re very smart, and I\u2019m very confident in adjusting to those fast breaks, which they did well today. It\u2019s kind of like I have the next step planned, but I want to see what their outcome will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorers in the matchup with Ashland were seniors Kaitlyn Head (5 goals), Meg Jones and Leary each with 3 goals and 3 assists, and a pair of goals by junior Kate Robinson. Netminder Ali Jones recorded 8 saves on the afternoon, but it was the final goal of the game that was arguably the most critical.<\/p>\n

Wachusett had jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the third quarter and appeared to have the game in hand; however, Ashland had different ideas. The team scratched and clawed their way back into the contest and trailed by just 2 points as the clock ran down. The Mountaineer girls managed to cling to the tightened lead thanks to Head\u2019s goal, which put things away for Wachusett.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really tense,\u201d Leary acknowledged. \u201cWe were all feeling the pressure, and after a tough loss the other day, we were determined that wasn\u2019t going to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest priority on this team is passing and catching,\u201d Head, a captain who will be attending San Diego State University, explained. \u201cThe main thing we want to be doing is controlling the ball, especially when there\u2019s a few minutes left on the clock and we\u2019re trying to kill time. Against a team like this (Ashland), that plays back far and deep with backdoor cuts. Passing and catching are super-important instead of just driving. Everyone having those skills is really important to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season has been amazing and such a morale boost. It\u2019s awesome to be on a team where we\u2019ve won five games in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs seniors, it\u2019s kind of sentimental since I\u2019ve been playing with these girls since second grade,\u201d said co-captain Meg Jones, who will be heading to Iona University in the fall. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019ve wanted to do since the beginning of the season was to keep the energy up. Everyone\u2019s positive, and we all share the ball. We\u2019re all working together as a team, and you can see it on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we had a tough schedule. We had a few losses, but we bounced back, and it shows in our record that we can make really tough wins against a team like Ashland who is seeded higher than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, who has proved invaluable leading the draw on faceoffs, has been a leader in setting up plays from center turf and takes her role doing so quite seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recently invested in a new draw stick, and we have been working on those at practice. I know that if I spot Rileigh (Leary), I\u2019m going to get it to her. I have full faith in Rileigh. The biggest part of the game is the draw because that controls the game. We try to move the ball around before taking shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking highly of the team\u2019s ambitious approach to the game and the success to date was parent Lori Head, who had high praise for Liposky and the team\u2019s enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething special\u2019s happening on this field this year to bring this team to where it is now,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of this team and this coach. These women deserve every point they\u2019ve gotten, because they\u2019ve fought every challenge they\u2019ve faced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the 2024 Wachusett Regional High girls\u2019 varsity lacrosse team are seniors Kaitlyn Head, Jordan Jarvi, Meghann Jones, Nadia Krasheninin and Rileigh Leary; juniors Alexis Gamache, Emily Hazen, Hannah McGurn, Kate Robinson and Eloise White; sophomores Jayla Bertrand, Elyse Gamache, Alison Jones, Sydney Marshall and Lilliana Mitchell; and freshmen Alison Fontaine, Clara Robinson and Evelyn White. Captains are Leary, Head and Meghann Jones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Orrell Landmark Correspondent HOLDEN \u2014 It takes 10 regular-season victories to qualify for the upcoming MIAA State Tournament, and with their tenth win in hand following a 13-10 defeat of visiting Ashland High, the Wachusett Regional High girls’ varsity lacrosse team proved they\u2019re in it to win it, say team players and coaches. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}