The Girls Lacrosse Team at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex
Girls Lacrosse Season Preview
Dan Clarke
The St. Luke’s Girls Varsity Lacrosse team is looking forward to the 2017 season and hoping to improve on last year’s campaign which saw them finish with an overall record of 5-9.
The program has continued to improve the last couple of seasons under the guidance of Head Coach Meg Price who is excited to see what this year’s group can achieve: “Every year we are building upon the previous one and developing the program. This year we have a very deep bench so I am very very optimistic about the season.”
The squad spent five days at the ESPN Wide World of Sports recently as part of the preseason training program and Price is pleased with how things have gone so far: “Preseason has been terrific. We had about 23 girls go to Disney and we really got a lot accomplished. We are starting at a different level this year which is awesome.”
The Storm will be captained by Caitlyn Conetta ‘17, Ella Pepper ‘17 and Catherine Verklin ‘17 and Price is looking for their experience and leadership to have a positive effect all over the field: “Our captains are doing an outstanding job of leading the team and being positive influences. I have Ella on Midfield/Attack, Caitlyn on defense and Catherine is low attack so to spread out the leadership is ideal and they are all very deserving of the position.”
Price is also looking to her junior class to really contribute along with some of the younger players: “Kate Vaske, Grace Kuehner and Sarah Powless are all juniors and are really strong on defense. We also have Margaret Maruszewski who, despite still being in eighth grade, is an outstanding talent and Olivia Schwartz who I believe will get a lot of goals for us.”
Price has added Ashley Kennedy, former head JV coach at The Bishop’s School, La Jolla, CA and University of San Diego graduate to her coaching staff to work alongside returning coaches Jennifer Besgen and Karen Calby and intends to bring in a goalkeeper coach to work with teams across the program, something she feels will be a huge benefit going forward: “Adding Ashley and the goalkeeper coach will be great. We now have four coaches working with the team so the amount of one-on-one attention has been very helpful.”
Price says the Storm will continue to play a fast-paced style of Lacrosse and have been working a lot on transition throughout preseason as well as continuing to improve their technical skills. She concluded: “The whole program is being taught the same quick ball movement, we have a lot of young players I am excited to see how they develop.”
Girls Varsity Lacrosse opened the season 1-2 following two tough losses to Greens Farms Academy and Holy Child but picking up a great win against The Harvey School. Next up is a road trip to Hamden Hall on Wednesday 4/19.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.