MHS Girls Lacrosse Falls to Ipswich

Marblehead High School's girls' lacrosse team finished it's season yesterday with a 13-10 loss to Ipswich in the semi-finals.

Ipswich came out strong from the start putting 3 goals on the scoreboard in the first 4 minutes. The magicians took charge, settled their game and answered back with an impressive come back to end the first half with a 6-6 tie.

Sophomore Kiley Fischer was key in the first half answering back to every Ipswich goal, as was  senior Olivia Raisner and Meggie Collins.

"The score at the half was 6-6 and made for a tight game and little room for error" said coach Annie Pugh.

At the half, Pugh was telling her team to "dig deep" for the next 25 minutes.

Ipswich came out in the second half and opened up the lead by 5 with about 12 minutes remaining in the game. Marblehead senior Olivia Raisner(3 goals, 3 assts) added one goal as did Fischer, Sarah Noyes and Maika Phillips. But it still wasn't enough.

To add to the pressure for Marblehead, with 5:30 left to go in the game, Meggie Collins was out with her second yellow card and Seniors Hayley Braun and Courtney Maag found themselves penalized for aggressive defense and sent to the sidelines. After watching Ipswich run the clock down while playing catch, it was all Marblehead could do.

"The Magicians played 3 men down in the final minutes of the game. Two goals were scored regardless of the disadvantage" stated Pugh.

Marblehead had impressive speed and aggressivenes by it's sophomore midfielders Meggie Collins, Tyler Phillips and Cassie Rogers. Freshman Emily Freedland and Junior Maggie Corbett were instrumental on running the ball up the field as the Tigers defense was too tight for passing.

The Ipswich Tigers definately had control of the draws which greatly contributed to their win. The Tigers center, Sarah Millard, had height as her advantage. Magicians senior Maika Phillips(1 goal) was able to control the draw while at center to connect with fellow senior Hayley Braun.

"The highlight of my game was getting the draw from Maika" Braun said. "It boosted my confidence and made my intensity increase. At that point, I really wanted to win."

Phillips commented on the draws by adding "They switched up their girls on the draw very frequently, so we continually had to adjust."

Senior goalie Kelly Collins was strong in net, but losing some of her defense made it impossible to hold off the relentless Tigers. She finished out the day with an impressive 9 saves from 22 shots on goal.

Senior Sarah Noyes(1 goal) summed up the game by saying, "We played a really good first half, but the second half was sloppy and not our best."

Noyes added "It was an amazing season and it's sad to see it come to an end."

Game stats:

Olivia Raisner: 3 goals, 3 assists

Sarah Noyes: 1 goal

Maika Phillips: 1 goal

Meggie Collins: 2 goals

Kiley Fischer: 3 goals

Kelly Collins: 9 saves, 22 shots on goal

The girls lacrosse team will officially end it's season with their banquet in a couple of weeks. Congratulations to you all on a great season!