Baltimore Girls Lax Squad Pulls Off Stunning Comeback in Maccabi Games

During this summer’s JCC Maccabi Games, Andy Heller and Robin Cardin Lowe's Baltimore girl’s lacrosse squad time and again got stronger as games wore on en route to a sterling 5-0 record prior to its gold medal game.

Against a talented Philadelphia team with an enormous home field advantage (the games were hosted in Philadelphia), that trend would need to continue for Baltimore to return home with the championship.

And, it did.

Trailing by three with less than three minutes to play, Baltimore reeled off three goals—including Sara Sefret’s game-tying score with just 30 seconds to play—to send the game to overtime deadlocked at 13 apiece.

Having swept away all the momentum, Baltimore dominated in the overtime period, as Toby Dubin found the back of the goal to put her squad up one and Ilana Goldberg netted an insurance score to cap off a miraculous 15-13, comeback victory.

“The emotions were just incredible. The final seconds were ticking down [in overtime] and once the officials blew the whistle, the feeling was phenomenal. Every kid was jumping up and down,” said Heller, who also noted that despite technically being the visitor, his squad benefitted from the Baltimore teams that stuck around to watch in support.

“You could feel the energy and the cheering and the momentum change—especially in those last three minutes [of regulation]. I think that’s what pushed the girls to victory.”

Also propelling the girls wondrous run was the squad’s closeness as a unit and their ability to put aside any semblance of an individual mindset and, instead, compete their hardest for the benefit of the team. 

“They were all great kids. They gelled together and had a lot of fun,” Heller said. “It was all about the team, there were no individuals. They really just put it together as a group. Leading up to in practices, I could just tell that this was a very special group of kids, that really wanted it, they wanted to win.”

Although every girl on the team made vital contributions, Heller specifically wanted to highlight the efforts of Sarah Zwilsky (the squad’s stalwart in goal), Noa Cardin, Toby Dubin, Peri Rutkovitz, Sarah Sefret, Baylee Heller, Ilana Goldberg, Arielle Hambur and Sydney Hamburg, as well as his coaching partner, Lowe.

Similar to the Olympic format, the Maccabi Games take place every summer in different cities across the world, featuring Jewish athletes, ages 13 through 16, representing their hometowns.