Girls Lax: Bears Look to 2012 Season Without All-American Biondi

When a team loses a star player, often times it’s tough to move on.

It’s especially tough to move on when that player is the first All-American in school history.

That is the case though for 's varsity girls lacrosse team, as the first All-American in the program's 10-year history, Lindsay Biondi, is moving to Ithaca come August. The move comes with a change in her father's work location. 

Biondi registered 76 goals and 30 assists this spring as a sophomore. As for her career as a Bear, which began when she was in seventh-grader, she has amassed 215 goals and 79 assists.

Her dad and twin brother Doug have been upstate since January. Doug Biondi played on this year’s Ithaca team, which lost in the state Class A finals 12-11 in overtime to Farmingdale.

Lindsay stayed back with her mom Laura Biondi, who was an assistant coach for the Bears the last four years, to sell their house. The Brewster star plans to join the girls lacrosse team at Ithaca High School.

While no one player can replace the loss of Lindsay, the Bears will have plenty of talent to work with next year, including all-section midfielders, Megan Yarusso and Kristen Ohberg, who just completed their junior and sophomore years, respectively.

Losing Lindsay really hit Ohberg during a 10-8 regular-season win against visiting John Jay.

“I was just in shock,” Ohberg said. “All of the emotions flooded towards me and it was like, Oh my god, she is actually moving. I am going to miss her terribly.”

Ohberg feels that if the Bears just stick together and play as a team, they should be able to build off of last spring’s season, where the Bears made the Section 1 Class B semifinals, losing a hard-fought contest at Fox Lane 14-13.

“The whole team has to step up,” Ohberg said. “I know myself and Megan Yarusso have to step up a lot more. Lindsay was our leading scorer but we have a strong team so I think we are going to be OK.”

Yarusso shares her teammate's enthusiasm, but readily admits a team misses something when it losses a high-caliber player like Lindsay.

“I know we’re going to miss her because she was someone that always was able to pump us up, encourage us, telling us that we could win,” Yarusso said. “We would always depend on her, that is what would build us up and get us comfortable for the rest of the game."

Besides stepping up their games, Ohberg said another way the Bears will be successful is through strong commitment to one another.

“We just have to communicate a lot, read one another better and just get to know each other in the things that we do and work together more,” Ohberg said.

Along with being all-section players, Ohberg and Yarusso each had experience as members of the Hudson Valley Empire States squad last summer.

“I was an alternate but I went to the practices,” Yarusso said. “There, I got to practice with other elite players from other towns. Now it’s up to me and Kristen [Ohberg] to step up and keep the team going.”