by Matt Koll
Canceled games, extra protocols, unusual adversity.
Unfortunately, all of these things were part of the 2021 spring lacrosse season for the two title teams, Washington & Jefferson and Thiel, as well every other team across the Presidents Athletic Conference.
“Our identity lies within our overall versatility and mental toughness. We’ve faced our fair share of challenges this year, but I am continually impressed with our ability to remain resilient,” said W&J head coach Alison Valerio.
“The leadership I have seen throughout this year and response from every individual on the team is probably the best I have ever seen in my 10 years of college coaching,” said Thiel head coach Tim Priskey. “This entire year has been littered with adversity. I don’t know if we have had a single game once we got to conference play where we had a full roster in the line-up. When you don’t know what your line-up is from day to day in a sport that takes 12 people to field a team, you rely on every individual to take adversity on the chin and move forward.”
For W&J, jumping through the hoops of adversity has brought them an undefeated season at 9-0. The Presidents saw the Barons from Franciscan for the second year in a row in the semifinals, beating them 17-12 thanks in large part to junior Sarah Labovitz’s seven goal performance that tied her season-high. With over 75% of their roster make-up being freshman and sophomores, W&J has had to grow up fast to get to this point.
“Gabby Galla is one of our vocal leaders that anchor the defense. She not only keeps our defense on their toes, but she helps hold the offense accountable and supports them tirelessly from the thirty,” said Valerio. “We rely heavily on our captain, Clara Sherwood, along with our attack and midfielders like Sarah Labovitz to work together on the offensive side. Clara and Sarah have helped anchor our offense, not only by creating opportunities, but by adjusting our sets and our momentum as needed. But, if I’m being completely honest, our entire team has achieved the unimaginable this year because of their support for one another and our program. I often forget how young we are, because we play with the maturity and prowess of a tenured team. I’m beyond proud of them and honored to be their coach.”
Thiel came back from a 13-11 deficit against Chatham in the semifinals to beat the Cougars 23-18 on Wednesday. Senior Mackenzie Quinn led the way with seven goals and eight points.
“We haven’t done anything too different with schemes from game to game,” said Priskey. “When you lose 2 games by a total of 3 goals and win 7 games, there isn’t much you want to change. Our focus for Chatham was to forget the past, play in the moment, don’t think about the future and play for the person next to you. We executed that well. That will be our focus as it has been all year.”
With that in mind, Priskey wants to attack the undefeated Presidents the same way the Tomcats did the last time they played them. He says they fought for 60 minutes, but couldn’t quite climb out of the hole they dug from themselves in the first 10 minutes of game play.
That first matchup on April 21st ended as just a one-goal victory for W&J at 10-9, which makes this championship meeting that much more intriguing.
“Our focus is to start strong and execute our defensive strategy,” Valerio says. “Thankfully, we played Thiel not too long ago, so we are looking to build on our previous performance against them. We hope to make some adjustments on the draw and in our transition game that will clean up some of our mishaps on both offense and defense.”
This championship berth brings with it some added pressure for both sides, but Priskey says it’s a welcomed added pressure because it is born out of support and excitement that they’ve received from the Thiel community, family and friends.
When addressing this in the semifinals, I talked about pressure being a privilege and how to react to it,” Priskey said. “We have done all the right things individually and as a team to put ourselves in this situation. Now that we are here, it’s about embracing the wanted pressure we are putting on ourselves, letting it motivate and inspire us to be the best teammates we can be.”
The title game gets started at 1 pm Saturday at Alexandre Stadium and an automatic-qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship is on the line.
