Bronxville's Bonfiglio to Play College Lacrosse

When Bronxville's Christy Bonfiglio was looking at colleges for girls lacrosse, she wanted a balance between academics and a chance for a national championship.

She found that at Franklin & Marshall, a Division III school in Pennsylvania that won the 2008 NCAA title and made the semifinals in 2009.

"You get the best of both worlds, great academics and great lacrosse," said Bonfiglio, a Bronxville High graduate who will be heading there this fall.

Bonfiglio's final decision was between Franklin & Marshall and Colby. "I chose F&M because after I visited a lot and stayed over with the team, and I just felt like I really liked it there," Bonfiglio explained.

She always wanted to play in Division III. Her brother Rich loves playing tennis at Trinity, another DIII school, where he will be a senior next year.

"There's a great balance," Christy said. 

After starting out as a soccer player, Bonfiglio tried lacrosse during her freshman year of high school. 

"I just wanted a different challenge and a different excitement," Bonfiglio said. "I started to play just to see what it was like and I started loving it. I love being on the field and I love playing with everyone."

She began as a defender, but once her stick skills improved she became a fixture in the midfield—and remained that way for the last three seasons. She's a strong, athletic presence in the middle of the field who brings power, speed and great field vision, especially in transition.

During her time at Bronxville, the Broncos have gone from a developing program to a team that went 11-4-1 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Section 1 tournament this past season.

"Freshman year we didn't do much training," Bonfiglio said. "As the years went on we started training in the winter — agility stuff and lifting and running, all the way to the spring. Now we continue to lift and condition as well as play lacrosse."

Bonfiglio also became more serious about the sport, first playing club lacrosse with Westchester Elite under Scarsdale coach CeCe Berger, and then playing in a national tournament last year and joining the Hurricanes with Suffern coach John Callanan.

Just like Bonfiglio started to take lacrosse seriously and improved, so has the school as a whole.

"Now lacrosse is really popular and a lot of girls play it," Bonfiglio said. "And since we've worked so hard, that's how we've done so great."