By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/15/09
Laura Frankenfield admitted she and the Wissahickon Lacrosse Club had modest expectations when the squad entered competition last week in the inaugural US Lacrosse U-15 National Championships at Bel Air,Md.
After all, Wissahickon was comprised mostly of girls from its township squad and many of the 30 teams in the field were all-star and club teams. But that did not stop Wissahickon from being confident.
That confidence showed in a brilliant performance by Wissahickon, which won all three of its pool play games and finished a solid fourth in the Championship Bracket.
For its efforts, Wissahickon is the 141 Lacrosse Youth Team of the Week.
“As a township team playing against club teams and against many girls that were older than us, it’s amazing how well we did” said Frankenfield, a rising freshman attack who will attend Wissahickon High. “We are really proud of ourselves.
“I thought we d
id really well, taking fourth. I didn’t find any shame in that. It was an awesome accomplishment. A lot of our girls started in second grade with Wiss Lax and I thought we had really good friendships off the field and I thought somehow we brought that to the field. Every player was able to communicate.”
Wisshahickon swept through pool play by downing Greene Turtle Lacrosse Club, 12-7; FatCat Lacrosse (Mi), 14-4; and NorCal Gold, 15-8. That earned Wissahickon the second seed in the 16-team Championship Bracket.
In the Championship Bracket, Wissahickon toppled Synergy (Mass.), 14-10, and then handled Western Mass., 12-10, in the quarterfinals. Competition got even stiffer in the Final Four and Wissahickon played strong, but fell to Stars Gold (Va.), 14-10, in the semis and Relentless Hustle, 17-11, in the third-place consolation game.
“I think the first game was the hardest,” said Frankenfield, who finished with four goals and 10 assists in the tourney. “Greene Turtle was a Maryland team so automatically we knew they were a tough team. But once we beat them we realized we were doing pretty well and that we’d have a chance.”
Wissahickon’s team – coached by Tom Gannon and Mary Stutman – featured all rising freshman and one rising 8th grader. Twelve of the players played for Wissahickon Lacrosse Club during the season and three others who had played with Wissahickon in the US Lacrosse U-15 Festival two weeks earlier were added to the roster.
One of those players was Haley Schweizer of Ultimate Goal Lacrosse. Schweizer finished with 16 goals and four assists and was named to the Lacrosse Magazine All-Tournament team. Also for Wissahickon, Olivia Gannon had 14 goals and three assists, Maddie Quirk had 10 goals and two assists, Caroline Haynie had nine goals and four assists and Lizzie Tillger had nine goals and two assists.
The attack was very balanced for Wissahickon. At least eight players scored in each of the three pool play wins.
The Wissahickon defense also was superb. That unit was led by Rachel Flynn, Jane Black, Dominique Nyzio, and Alana Stutman as well as goalie Rachel Stone. Also making major contributions were Lyndsey Britton (four goals, two assists) and Taryn Deck (four goals, one assist) of Radnor Youth Lacrosse as well as Emilee Ehret (four goals and two assists against Synergy, seven goals overall) and Zoe Gomez (six goals, three assists).
“I’m extremely proud of the way of our girls battled whenever they got down or when leads dwindled.” said Gannon.
Also in the tourney, the Phantastix Purple squad reached the quarterfinals. Phantastix White and SEPA 2013 also competed.
Wissahickon Team Roster
D- Jane Black
A/M – Lyndsey Britton
A/M -Taryn Deck
M – Emilee Ehret
M/D- Rachel Flynn
A – Laura Frankenfield
A/M- Olivia Gannon
A – Zoe Gomez
A- Caroline Haynie
D – Dominique Nyzio
M – Maddie Quirk
M- Haley Schweizer
D- Alana Stutman
G – Rachel Stone
A/M – Lizzie Tillger
Game Recaps
Wissahickon 12 Greene Turtle (Md.) 7
Tillger 2g, 1a
Deck 2g
Gannon 2g
Britton 1g, 1a
Frankenfield 1g, 1a
Gomez 1g, 1a
Schweizer 1g, 1a
Haynie 1g
Flynn 1a
Nyzio 1 ct, 1 int
Wissahickon 14 FatCat Lacrosse (MI) 4
Frankenfield 1g, 4a
Haynie 3g, 1a
Gomez 2g, 1a
Quirk 2g, 1a
Nyzio 3a
Schweizer 2g
Gannon 1g, 1a
Deck 1g
Tillger 1g
Stutman 1g
Wissahickon 15, NorCal Gold 8
Schweizer 5g
Quirk 2g, 1a
Frankenfield 1g, 1a
Black 1g
Britton 1g
Deck 1g
Gannon 1g
Gomez 1g
Haynie 1g
Tillger 1g
Wissahickon 14, Synergy (Mass) 10
Ehret 4g, 2a
Haynie 2g, 2a
Schweizer 3g
Gannon 2g, 1a
Quirk 2g
Tillger 1g
Deck 1a
Frankenfield 1a
Quarterfinals: Wissahickon 12, Western Mass. 10
Tillger 4g
Schweizer 2g, 1a
Haynie 2g
Gannon 1g, 1a
Gomez 1g, 1a
Deck 1g
Britton 1a
Frankenfield 1a
Quirk 1g
Semifinals: Stars Gold (VA) 14, Wissahickon 10
Gannon 4g
Schweizer 2g, 1a
Quirk 2g
Britton 1g
Ehret 1g
Frankenfield 1a
Haynie 1a
Third-Place: Relentless Hustle (NY) 17, Wissahickon 11
Gannon 3g
Ehret 2g
Schweizer 1g, 1a
Frankenfield 1g, 1a
Britton 1g
Deck 1g
Gomez 1g
Quirk 1g
Flynn 1a
Tillger 1a
