By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/19/11
Baldwin School’s Sloan Warren had two goals and an assist today and was named the tournament MVP for Team Spirit, helping her squad claim a 17-16 victory over Team Freedom in the title game of the US Lacrosse Champion All-American Showcase.
The three-day event – featuring many of the top 80 high school seniors in the country – was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Today’s championship game was shown live on http://www.espn3.com.
Warren, who will play at Virginia, scored 16 goals in the four games of the tourney.
“By the end of the championship game, everyone was exhausted and the Florida heat was starting to take a toll,” Warren said. “But that made the victory even more gratifying and exhilarating.
“We knew that in the end we would have to slow the tempo of the game down on our attack and take on a greater defensive focus, which we were able to make happen. It was so exciting to be a member of the winning team after three hard fought days of lacrosse with some of the toughest competition around the nation!
“The girls on my team were all great players and really fun people. I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to participate in the event and to have been able to be on the field as my team pulled out the win in the very close and competitive final game.”
For Freedom, Meg Bartley (Virginia Tech) of Delaware state champion Cape Henlopen was named the Sportsmanship Award winner. Downingtown East’s Kelly Devlin (midfield) also was on Team Freedom and Brooke Watson (Germantown Academy assistant) was an assistant coach for Freedom.
Syracuse-bound Kailah Kempney (Carthage High, N.Y.) had three goals and eight draw controls to help Team Spirit.
In the morning’s consolation game, Kerrin Maurer had six goals and one assist to help Team Pride to a 21-12 win over Liberty. Pride featured goalie Allie Murray (Downingtown East) and midfielder Callie Francis (Hill School) was in the running yesterday for a berth in the championship game, but tiebreakers sent Pride to the consolation. Pride finished 3-1. Liberty, which went winless, got a strong effort all tourney long by Harriton’s Carli Sukonik (midfield), one of the team’s top scorers.
Both Warren and Sukonik were named all ESPN RISE for their overall performances at the Showcase.
Coaches selected an MVP and a Sportsmanship Award winner for each team. They are:
Spirit MVP: Sloan Warren, midfielder, Baldwin (Pa.)/Virginia
Spirit Sportsmanship: Megan Armes, defender, Mission Viejo (Calif.)/Saint Mary’s
Pride MVP: Megan Douty, defender, Rumson Fair Haven (N.J.)/Duke
Pride Sportsmanship: Molly Hulseman, midfielder, Loyola Academy (Ill.)/Loyola
Liberty MVP: Madison Acton, midfielder, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional (Mass.)/Duke (verbal commitment)
Liberty Sportsmanship: Meg Markham, defender, Manhasset (N.Y.)/Penn
Freedom MVP: Kyle Fraser, attacker, Fort Worth Country Day (Texas)/Stanford
Freedom Sportsmanship: Meg Bartley, attacker, Cape Henlopen (Del.)/Virginia Tech
