All-Americans Lead Local Girls Lax Squads

Fox Lane

For the Foxes, last year was a dream season as they ended Yorktown’s five-year run as Section 1 Class B champions, on their way to an appearance in the state championship game.

Fox Lane finished 2010 with a 19-3 overall record and 8-1 mark in its league, tying it with John Jay for the league championship.

Considering the talent the Foxes have coming back this season, they could easily make it to another state championship game.

“The girls worked extremely hard last year,” Fox Lane coach Bill Broggy said. “The girls actually have been working hard for years to improve their skills and last year it came to fruition. But I have told the girls, what we did last year has no bearing on what we will do this year. The most important thing is that we work hard in practice every day and push each other.”

Broggy’s squad is led by the All-American duo of senior Lindsay Toppe, who plays attack and junior Sammy Jo Tracy, who is at midfield.

Toppe last season scored a state record 132 goals as a junior. Toppe, who will play at Cornell University next season, has racked up 301 career goals since playing for the Foxes as a freshman.

“Lindsay is a great athlete, she has fantastic skills as a lacrosse player,” Broggy said. “She is motivated to be the best that she can be every day at practice. When players do that, they excel. She never takes a drill off, a play off. It’s an amazing thing.”

What’s also amazing is the play of Tracy, who is University of North Carolina-bound. She tallied 106 points on the strength of 75 goals and 31 assists in ’10.

Broggy feels that Tracy is the most skilled girls lacrosse player in Section 1.

“Her lacrosse skills and intelligence is off the board,” Broggy said. “She is hard to stop up the field when she has the ball. She is a genius when she plays lacrosse.”

Helping Toppe at attack are juniors, Sydney Stern, who registered 44 goals and 55 assists last year for 99 points and Lexi Cannon.

Sophomore midfielders Kate Burbank and Kailey O’Hagan, senior defenders Aly Dowey and Sophia Ohler and sophomore goalie Kendall Marianacci will also play key roles for the Foxes this spring.

Fox Lane will open its season when it travels to Mamaroneck at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5.

John Jay

Last year John Jay had an outstanding campaign as it finished with a 15-1 overall record and earned a co-league championship during the regular season.

Still, losing to Yorktown 13-11 in the Class B semifinals ended the Indians' year on a sour note—one they want to change when they travel to Yorktown Wednesday for the second game of their season.

“This is a huge game,” John Jay All-American Casey Bocklet said. “We have been shooting for this ever since they ended our season last year. We are pretty excited about this game. We just hope it goes well.”

Leading John Jay, which won its opener 14-3 against visiting Brewster on March 30, is Bocklet, who will see time at both attack and midfield this season. The Northwestern University-bound Bocklet is coming off a season where she scored a school record 105 goals (second in the section to Toppe) as a junior and since her freshman year, has amassed a career-goal total of 218, which is also a school mark.

Bocklet led an offense last season which tallied 17.4 goals per game, tops in Section 1.

Bocklet continued her offensive mastery when she registered four goals and three assists in the triumph against Brewster.

Playing key roles at attack for John Jay will be seniors Darragh Everts and Mallory Grimm and sophomore Sarah Lang.

“We have been playing a long time with each other so we are comfortable with playing with one another, we know where each other wants the ball,” Bocklet said.

Another key player for the Indians is junior all-elite center midfielder, Lauren Murray, who registered 45 goals a season ago and is bound for Northwestern as well.

Other key midfielders are junior Kelsey Davey, who will be going to USC and sophomores Hannah Wear and Molly O’Reilly. This is a group that brings plenty of speed and hustle to the field.

The defense is headed up by seniors, all-section performer Katie Flynn, Laura Filauro and senior goalie Veronica Brady.

“They are pretty much all returners who played great last year so we have a lot of confidence in them,” Bocklet said.