Catholic Conference

St. Mark's (7-8) - After losing workhorse and current John Hopkins women's lacrosse player Haley Schweizer to graduation in 2013, by all means St. Mark's should have struggled a bit more than they did in 2014. The Spartans even improved on their disappointing 5-10 2013 record, however inconsistency struck hard on Spartan hill last season. St. Mark's fell just one game short of making their first trip back to the state tournament since 2012 - a haunting statement to their seniors when you consider their one and three goal losses to Tower Hill and St. Andrew's.


This year St. Mark's has six seniors to replace, but the rebuilding shouldn't be as difficult as it has the past two seasons. Seniors Madelyn Baker (20G, 12A) should be the nucleus on attack, with seniors Alyssa Simmons (22G, 2A) and Emily Evans providing the experience in the midfield. Sophomore Katharine Giannaras returns in the cage after starting her freshmen season. The Spartans also gain a fresh new face in freshmen Kendra Schweizer, whose older sisters Courtney, Taren and Haley have all gone on to play Division 1 lacrosse after making a name for themselves here in Delaware. The last of the Schweizer sisters to make her way through St. Mark's, she should certainly be a player to watch this year and in the years to come.




Ursuline (11-5) - Ursuline has always been a big name in girls lacrosse in Delaware, but it wasn't until the 2013 season that the Raiders were able to overcome their first round jitters (four tournament appearances from 2008-2012) and make it into the semi-finals. One year after the number five seed Ursuline shocked Polytech on their own field by a one goal differential, they did it again - this time in overtime to the number four seed Caravel.


The Raiders lost six seniors from last year's squad, but bring back a copious amount of underclassmen who all saw time on the field under Coach Feffie Barnhill last year. Plenty of firepower returns in the midfield with seniors Madeline Hughes (32G, 12A) and Emily Blaskow (12G, 5A), along with sophomore Erin O'Doherty (25G, 5A). Juniors Delaney Vorwick and Nina Budischak bring experience to the defense, while junior Erin Davis (who did a fine job stepping into her predecessor's shoes last year) returns between the pipes as the goalkeeper.




Padua - Padua is fielding a varsity team for the first time this season after spending one year as JV team - the Pandas had a whopping 43 girls on their roster last year!

Diamond State

Archmere (14-3) - Archmere was flying high in 2014 - the Auks achieved their best regular season record to date after finishing 13-2, earning them the number two seed in the state tournament and their third consecutive appearance in the semi-finals. Five seniors however graduated from last year's record breaking team, and coach Caitlin Kelley has moved on to US Lacrosse, where she was hired as the Women's Game Manager. Taking over the reins of the program now is first year head coach Allison Kern, a recent graduate of Wilmington University where she played div. II lacrosse and the current director of the Victory Women's Lacrosse Club.


Although Archmere has a big hole to replace after graduating the team's highest goal scorers, Katelyn Payne (62G, 14A) and Amanda Olsen (54G, 9A), new coach Allison Kern inherits a core group of underclassmen from last year's squad. A handful of juniors who have all seen time on the field since their freshmen year are all back - Kennedy Murphy (34G, 2A) leads the midfield, while Presley Conaty (33G, 8A) and sophmore Julia Collins (16G, 3A) are back on the attack. On defense, senior goalie Kelley Lucey returns along with defender Sarah Bunting.




St. Thomas More (5-9) - St. Thomas More returns nine starters from last year, including their leading goal scorer junior Joanna Petrosky (27G, 6A). Dispute returning back almost their entire team from 2014, new head coach Kirsten Ward will have her work cut out for her - the Ravens play a very difficult schedule with games against Caravel, Polytech, Sts. Peter & Paul (MD), Caesar Rodney, Ursuline, Sussex Tech and Archmere.

Non-Conference

Caravel (14-2) - Caravel had another record breaking year in 2014. New head coach Carolyn Thompson lead the Buccaneers to a regular season 14-1 record and their first ever birth into the state tournament before falling the first round in overtime to Ursuline. The team's offense scored a state high of 297 goals, and their defense only allowed in 97! Caravel's relatively weak strength of schedule however meant that they outscored their opponents by more than 11 goals in all but one of their regular season games.


The Buccaneers lost six players to graduation last June, but still retain their top four goal scorers. Sophomore Olivia Duarte (73G, 48A), a starter since her eighth grade year will once again lead the midfield, joining her is fellow sophomore Lauren Phillips (65G, 33A) and senior Isabel Orticelle (31G, 7A). Senior Abigail Reid (72G, 37A) should help bring experience on the attack. Junior goalkeeper Hannah Seamans is back for her third year between the pipes.




Red Lion (5-10) - Red Lion improved in 2014, winning two more games than they did in 2013 while scoring 15 more goals on attack and letting in less goals on defense. 2015 should allow for even more progress as the Lions only lost two seniors to graduation. Leading goal scorer senior Miriam Fieger (19G) will be key for the attack, along with fellow senior Sydney Revell (6G) and junior Morgan Holt (9G).  Taking over the coaching duties is new coach Becky Reed.

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-The last two parts of the season previews should be up within the next couple of days.  

-On the sidebar on the right hand side of the page you might have noticed that there's a new button under the subscribe & connect heading.  In addition to twitter, I just recently created a facebook page as another avenue of following DELaxJournal and sharing game scores live as they happen.  It will also allow me to post more information on games in the moment, without being restricted by twitter's 140 character limit.  

-As a reminder, there are usually multiple games going on in a day and I can only share information on game scores as they are given to me. Sending me tweets or a DM on twitter of score updates during a game, or the final score after the game is over helps me tremendously.  This is especially helpful later on when tournament rankings start to take shape.

Henlopen

Caesar Rodney (9-7) - CR started off on a rocky start in 2014, opening up the season with Cape Henlopen and Charter (the two teams combined for a score of 37-3 against the Riders), but went on a run towards the end of the season with crucial back-to-back wins against Polytech and Ursuline. That, along with their strong strength the schedule propelled Caesar Rodney into the last spot of the state tournament for the first time since 2008.


Despite losing 5 seniors, CR brings back a duo of offensive firepower in leading goal scorers Kourtney Olsen (66G, 14A) and Delaney Steele (58G, 17A) - the two juniors combined for 124 of their team's 195 goals. Junior Jenna Rigby (12G, 9A) returns in the midfield, along with fellow junior Maegan Stewart (10G, 4A). On defense junior Madeleine Card returns along with senior Amber Pearson. Caesar Rodney also returns one of their strongest assets from 2014 in 2nd team all-state junior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Longest.




Cape Henlopen (13-5) - The last time that the Cape Henlopen Vikings collected five losses in a single season was back in 2007 when they were still being coached by Gretchen Wyshock, and before Cape started to go on their state championship run. The very next year lacrosse guru PJ Kesmodel took over the program and one short year later a dynasty was born.


All five of their losses in 2014 came from out of state opponents, including a 11-12 overtime loss to a nationally ranked top 10 Bishop Ireton (VA), who later went on to clinch both the VISAA and WCAC titles in Virginia. In two separate 2015 pre-season polls, Bishop was ranked #4 in the nation in the Nike/LM High School Girls' Top 25 and #3 in the nation by USA Today. The two teams will meet up again in Cardinal territory on Saturday, May 2nd for what should surely be another exciting game.


The Vikings graduated 8 seniors from 2014, including 1st Team All-staters and US Lacrosse All-Americans Allie Yeager (44G, 43A) and Katherine Judge (30G, 14A - Player of the Year), draw specialist Karalyn Joseph (26G, 14A), and Maggie Delp (1A) and Riley Wagner on defense. Although the defending state champions graduated some crucial pieces on both sides of the field, it returns it's leading goal scorer in senior attacker Sarah Tappan (62G, 27A), along with fellow senior attackers Jordan Brown (37G, 3A) and Alexa Woodruff (23 G, 18A). In the midfield juniors Lizzie Frederick (15 G, 12A) and Tess Bernheimer (11G, 4A) along with sophomore Cailey Thornburg should contribute considerably again, while 1st team all-stater Taylor Gooch and fellow senior Coryn Cannon will anchor the defense. Their stalwart goalkeeper, Samantha Broadhurst (1st team all-state) is back between the pipes for her fourth and final year. In addition two familiar last names return in freshmen Katie Frederick, younger sister to Lizzie ('16) and Anna ('13, Temple) and Annie Judge, younger sister to the 2014 player of the year and recent Cape grad Katherine Judge.


The quest for lucky number seven kicks off in exactly five days, when the visiting Parkside Rams (MD) come into town.




Dover (8-7) - The Dover Senators look drastically different this year, losing ten seniors from 2014's squad - six of which were responsible for producing 57% of the team's 176 goals. In addition, a new face can be found on the sideline in first year head coach Emily Peets. Peets, who hails from Pittsford, New York was a member of Delaware State University's inaugural women's lacrosse team in 2013.


This year's team is particularly young, with defender Natalie Glascock the only senior remaining on the roster. Seventeen juniors however make up the bulk of the Senators roster - Ave Burleigh (6G, 1A) and Rachel Mills (3G, 2A), along with sophomore Mira Prisco will anchor the team's attack. Junior Catherine Schoepp looks to be the new keeper.




Polytech (11-4) - Polytech reached the state tournament for a second straight year in 2014, and on paper looked poised to win their first ever tournament game only to suffer another home field heart breaker to the eventual runner ups Charter School of Wilmington. In 2014 the Panthers had to replace six starters from graduation, this year however Polytech returns with most of its lineup still intact.


Poly returns a strong class of midfielders, spearheaded by the second highest goal scorer in the state from last year, junior Jamie Trabaudo. The future UNC lacrosse player scored in every single game of the season last year, and in both of their upset losses to CR and Charter at the end of last season, Trabaudo was kept to only 3 goals. Joining her in the midfield is fellow junior Alison McKay (45G, 13A) along with senior Rachel Slater (17G, 4A). At attack, Kathryn Richardson (19G, 22A) is back along with Rebecca Shirey (5G, 1A). Junior defender Kaitlin Bergold will hold down the fort on defense, while Lauren Lee should be taking on the full-time job of goalkeeper after splitting time in the net with the graduated Taylor Lyon last season.


From attack to defense, the Panthers are loaded.




Smyrna (7-7) - Smyrna achieved a respectable 7-7 record for their first year as a varsity program in 2014, and return virtually all of their starting line-up in 2015. The Eagles lost their leading goal scorer in Nia Wright (25G, 3A) to graduation, but retain a slew of juniors who can get the job done in her place. The midfield will feature Madeline Price (22G, 1A) and Shabnam Noroozi Poova (17G, 2A), while Alison Sayers (11G, 3A) and Allison Wheatley (16G, 4A) will team up on attack.




Sussex Tech (7-8) - After losing 8 seniors in 2013, what should have been a rebuilding year for the Ravens, Sussex Tech rebounded back after a rocky start to the season and came within two places of making the state tournament for the fourth straight year. Graduation left holes in all three lines and in the cage as well, but a strong foundation still remains in 2015. Seniors Torrie Huk (20G, 6A) and Emma Spellman (13G, 6A) along with junior Lexus Purnell (3G, 3A) return on attack and in the midfield. Senior Hannah Collins who saw time last year should return back on the defensive end. She'll have a new goalie guarding the net behind her though, as the old keeper Taschiana Gibbs-Hughes was lost to graduation.