Hazelwood West Lacrosse Wins 10th Straight, Blasts Parkway Central

One of the best kept secrets among the local girls lacrosse scene is quickly becoming a secret no more, as the Wildcats have won 10 games in a row, some in wildly dramatic fashion. Trust, opposing players and coaches are beginning to take note.

“I’ve been hearing from some other coaches, and they’ve been congratulating me (and the girls) on how well we’re playing,” West varsity lacrosse coach Mike Vaughn said. “I think people are starting to notice that we’ve got something special going on here at West.”

Indeed they do. And boy have they been on some kind of roll, winning games in nearly every way possible.

Since their last lost on April 2, the Wildcats have avenged it by winning a rematch against Marquette High on April, and they also won a game in overtime on April 14 against Clayton High School.

West has also twice set the school single-game scoring record. The first occurrence was a 19-4  victory at Hazelwood East High on April 18, followed by a 23-4 win against the Spartans again on April 29. The Wildcat girls have also won two games against. O’Fallon High on April 21 and at Rockwood Summit High on May 3, with goals in the final minute.

In the O’Fallon game, the Wildcats scored with one second left to win. And against Summit, West trailed by five goals late in the second half, before coming back to win on a goal with 51 seconds left.

The excitement was that much stronger on Thursday, as the Wildcats pushed their winning streak to 10 with a 16-3 pounding of visiting Parkway Central High.

Junior attackers Lia Hannenburg and Krysta Swalley were the big scorers of the day for the Wildcats. Hannenburg scored a game-high five goals, while Swalley added four tallies of her own.

 Also finding the back of the net for West on Thursday, was senior Stephanie Baker (two goals), sophomore Brittany Monroe (two goals), along with Holly Walkup, Sajeda Issa, and Carolina Cruz, who each had one goal apiece.

“The big thing is these are my core girls that have been with me since their freshman year,” Vaughn said. “We’ve been preaching a lot of basics this year. We’ve been working a lot on stickwork, a lot of footwork. Just go back to basics and we’ll be fine.”

The district playoff seeding meeting is set for this evening, May 10. Vaughn said that he’ll get to make his team’s case for a favorable playoff seed that night, and he hopes his Wildcats aren’t stuck near the middle- or back-half of the pack.

“I’m hoping for a 14 or 15 seed,” Vaughn said. “These girls deserve that. I couldn’t be any more proud of this team than I have been lately.”