Mount Greylock Girls Defeat Hoosac Valley in Opener
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Thanks to the people at MCLA, the girls lacrosse teams at Mount Greylock and Hoosac Valley were happy to get their seasons started on Wednesday evening.
Mount Greylock coach Lindsey von Holtz was less excited about how the game itself got underway.
“A rough start and a rough end, unfortunately,” von Holtz said. “But in the middle, when we were playing well, we were taking care of the ball and realizing that having possession is really important, so we were winning a lot of draws in the middle.”
The Mounties (1-0) went on a 10-1 run that spanned the first and second halves to erase a 4-1 deficit en route to a 14-10 win over the Hurricanes on Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ Ron Shewcraft Field.
Caroline Flynn scored five goals, and Carolyn Jones added four for Mount Greylock, which got three goals and two assists from Emma Polumbo.
Hoosac Valley (0-1) jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first nine minutes on two goals from Chloe Martel and a goal and an assist from Alie Mendel (three goals).
Mount Greylock’s lone goal during that stretch came from senior Lauren Howard, who made a big impact in her return to the lineup.
“It was nice to have Lauren back,” von Holtz said. “She wasn’t with us last year. She took a year off. But it was great to have her back. She was huge in the midfield and was key to a lot of transitions for us … with Emma and Caroline.
“I thought Kristen Aliberti did a fantastic job on defense. She slowed down some of their players who were crashing in, and that’s hard to do when they’re running at you full field.”
Mount Greylock scored three goals in about two minutes midway through the first half to tie it, 4-4, on a goal by Jones.
Five minutes later, Polumbo went to the goal from the right wing on a restart to give Mount Greylock its first lead. But Brook DiGennaro (three goals) answered for Hoosac Valley with 1 minute, 2 seconds on the clock to tie it, 5-5.
The Mounties scored twice in the final minute of the half to take the lead for good and opened the second half with four straight goals to open a six-goal lead it never relinquished.
Mount Greylock, which is scheduled to go to Granby on Friday, got a combined seven saves from Autumn Delorey and Jayden Johnson. Johnson, a freshman, stepped into the goal midway through the second half and showed that Mounties will have some depth at the position this spring.
“She’s been playing really well in practice, and she had some great games in [Saturday’s] jamboree, so we really like what we’ve been seeing from her,” von Holtz said of Johnson. “I wanted to see her in a close game. I know it probably made her more nervous, but I wanted to see what she could do in a close game.
“We have four goalies between our two teams this year. If we could get them all in for a half, it would be great. Obviously, if whoever is in first half is having a really good game, we’ll stay with that person. But if possible, we’ll try to use two or at least have a second one who is equal to the first, which is nice.”
Hoosac Valley had a nice finish on Wednesday night, scoring five of the last eight goals to take some positives away from its second time outside the gym this spring.
“I thought we came out really strong, we were really aggressive,” Hoosac Valley coach Molly Meczywor said. “Defensively, we had a bit of a lull. We got a little stagnant. We started playing a little more 1-v-1 as opposed to, ‘Stick in the middle, here’s the ball, here’s my girl, kinda seeing all angles.’ That hurt us defensively. They stopped talking a little bit. They got a little flat.
“In the second half, I called that timeout to blast them a little bit and tell them, ‘We’re flat again.’ … And I thought they did a great job at the end.”
The Hurricanes travel to South County to face Lee on Tuesday.