BY CHASE FUSCO
The girl’s lacrosse team remains undefeated after a 12-game regular season. The team enters the Greater Middlesex County Tournament as the top seed on Saturday at 10 am at home against the winner of the Edison (8) versus JP Stevens (9) play-in game.
The program has achieved unprecedented success this season. “Currently, our record is 12-0, which is the farthest the girls’ lacrosse program has gone being undefeated,” shared senior goalie Joey Grotkopf.
The players’ effort and hard work have helped them achieve a high level of play that they can all be proud of. Junior Jenna Scopellite, who is second on the team with 24 goals, stated, “Remaining undefeated 12 games into the season is a great accomplishment, and I’m so proud of my team because we’ve been working so hard since day 1.”
Grotkopf credits her teammates for a lot of the team’s success by complimenting their teamwork and ability to communicate. “To achieve our goals, we focus on being patient when we have the ball on offense and shooting with purpose. The team has amazing communication with each other, and everyone loves playing lacrosse, which makes the sport more fun and helps everyone get better every day,” said Grotkopf
Scopellite agrees that teamwork has made a big difference this season. “The chemistry this team has is the key to the team’s success. We are so supportive of each other, and the energy is never down whether we are playing our best or our worst,” Scopellite said.
The season has included numerous memorable highlights, such as defeating two local rivals. “Our most exciting win would have to be either Monroe or North Brunswick. Both teams are some of our biggest competitors and the thrill and energy we had when we played them was unreal,” said junior Gabrielle Walker.
The players and their hard work have paid off this season and teammates have made some memories along the way. “On April 11th, we beat North Brunswick 9-6 in a game where everyone worked together and hustled to the very last second, and most importantly played our game. We expected North Brunswick to be our biggest competition this season and beating them gave everyone such a rush and boosted our morale,” explained Grotkopf.
The team closed the regular season by repeating that success against North Brunswick in a 6-5 win. “They have some really good girls,” said Juliana Segura, who leads the team with 17 assists. “It was a really good game, you know it’s obviously tough, but we are a great team and work really hard together.”
In one outstanding individual highlight this season, goalie Joey Grotkopf, notched her 200th career save. “I was so ecstatic hitting my 200th save this season, especially considering I lost a season to COVID. My team made me feel so special celebrating it with me, and I am so thankful to play with an amazing group of girls who push me every day in games and at practices to do better and reach my goals,” shared Grotkopf.
Now that the team has wrapped their record-setting regular season, the attention has shifted to the post-season. Scopellite said, “The main goal is to win GMC’s, and I have full confidence we can do so.”
Whatever the girls achieve in the county and state tournaments, this season will go down as a success by all measures. “This season has been so much more fun than I could have imagined. I really love this team so much, from our practices to games to pasta parties,” said Walker, the team leader in goals with 27.
Come out and support the Red Division champions as they play in round one of the GMC Tournament at home this Saturday at 10 am.
Posted on 5/5/22
Photos by Gabriella Master
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