Varsity girls fall to Notre Dame in Sweet 16 play
By JENNIFER GENTILE
HINGHAM—It was arguably a David and Goliath scenario for the Melrose High girls’ lacrosse team, who saw their post season end in Sweet 16 play with a loss to #1 seed Notre Dame of Hingham (24-0) on the road on June 7 by a score of 18-4, ending their successful season with a final record of 9-9.
This after they secured a first-ever home playoff win, beating Westborough, 10-9, in the opening round of the Div. 2 playoffs at Fred Green Field last week, a historic moment for Melrose.
It was a bittersweet end to a great season, according to Melrose head coach Matt Galusi. And the girls certainly had their work cut out for them against Notre Dame. “NDA is an absolute machine, they are the defending state champs for a reason, and I don’t see anyone beating them this year,” he said after the game. “They were so impressive in every aspect of the game and every one of their players possessed tremendous lacrosse skill.”
Sure enough, Notre Dame remains undefeated at 24-0 and is already awaiting an opponent in the state title game.
All more impressive, however, that Melrose was able to penetrate their defense to find the net four times. Scoring goals for Melrose were Sofia Pitcher, Alison Doherty, Cailan MacDonald and Megan Casey.
The coach points out that Melrose was completely blanked by Notre Dame when they faced them last year in the second round of playoffs, a bit of a déjà vu scenario. Only this year, Melrose played much stronger, with increased offense and more solid draws and midfield work. “We took tremendous pride in the fact that we scored the first goal, a nice rebound pick up by Sofia Pitcher, and that we were able to run our offense and have some success. This season we were 400% better on offense against Notre Dame and only allowed 2 more goals.”
He continued. “The biggest thing that I took pride in was that we never backed down and played hard until the final whistle. We were playing the best team in the state, but didn’t waiver at all. We rose to the challenge and found ourselves in the spot of every NDA opponent this season.”
And what a season it was. Melrose crowned five All Stars—Megan Casey, Alison Doherty, Jill Frawley, Sofia Hitchman and Lindsey Teeven—and earned that first-ever home playoff win and were one of the only two MHS spring teams to qualify for playoffs while also advancing to the Sweet 16.
“This season was really a tale of two seasons,” says Galusi. “In the first half we started 2-6 and lost 3 or 4 games that I feel we could have won. In the second half of the season, we went 6-2, had a 5-game winning streak and lost the 2 games by a total of 5 goals. To say the girls turned it around is an understatement. I only wish we could have beaten Burlington and reclaimed the Freedom Title.”
A big highlight of the post season was the great escort the team had in their home playoff game against Westborough, when they were led on to Fred Green Field by a bagpiper, Patrick McDonnell. Says the coach, “That showed what Melrose girls lacrosse is all about. Thanks Patrick!”
This year, the team says so long to five seniors: Sofia Pitcher, Meghan Maher, Lindsey Teeven, Sophia Galusi and captain Megan Casey. Says the coach, “I’m so proud of my entire team, especially my five seniors. They displayed tremendous leadership and helped guide our team to a first-round win and a #16 seed in the tournament. They will be missed and won’t be replaced any time soon.”
However, the future remains bright. Galusi notes that they had 25 freshman girls in the program this season. But he also has some mega talent returning, including All-Conference Jill Frawley, midfield-defense standout Emily Lucien, high-scoring Alison Doherty, goalie Sophia Hitchman and defensemen Lucy Clark, Alex Leeman and Nadia Santos, all returning next year as upperclassmen.
With that in mind, the coach says, “I expect us to be right back where we left off this season and am hopeful for a deep tourney run.”