Cape to face unbeaten Saint Mark’s May 29 for girls’ lax state title
Play Cape girls’ lacrosse in 2018 and just cut to the chase.
“We are switching out five people – three middies and two attack – every three minutes the entire game,” said coach Lindsey Eichner after the Vikings ran away from Archmere in the semifinals of the DIAA state tournament for a 19-4 victory.
Cape outshot the Auks 35-9 over 50 minutes, throwing hard shots on freshman goalie Maura Smeader, who had a great game with 12 real-deal saves.
Cape assistant coach Leigh Rupar, a former player at Charter and Delaware, handles the offense for the Vikings.
Lindsay Monigle had an eight-point game with four goals and four assists to lead the Cape offense. The Vikings also got hat tricks from Mallory Jones and Alia Marshall, and two-goal efforts from Katie Frederick and Emily Monigle. Annie Judge, Annie Stancofski, Sawyer Walker, Kaylie Truitt and Christina Benson also scored for Cape.
Vikings assists came from Marshall with two, and Jackie Cannon, Cammy Baldwin and Meredith Lockwood with one each.
Archmere got a three-goal hat trick from Caroline Donovan and a single goal from Kate Olsen.
The tournament win was the 29th straight for Cape going back to 2009, the year of their first state championship.
‘We play unbeaten Saint Mark’s in the final on Tuesday,” said Eichner. “I told our team, ‘That’s the game we want. We didn’t play during the regular season, so it should be fun.’ Obviously, both teams can run, and I know for 50 minutes, that’s what we’ll be doing.”
Much had been made in the media and halls of Saint Mark’s of this being the end of the run of Schweizer girls, starting with Courtney and moving through Taryn, Haley, and lastly, Kendra. Lori Schweizer is the team’s head coach.
Cape has its own family legacies leaving it on the field. It will be the end for the Judge girls, Caroline, Kat and Annie, and the Frederick family, Anna, Lizzie and Katie.
A quick glance comparing the Spartans (17-0) and Vikings (16-1) shows Cape yielding just 67 goals on the season, while the Spartans have given up 108.
Offensively, both teams light up the scoreboard, with the Spartans scoring 15 or more goals 13 times while the Vikings scored 15 or better 14 times.
The game is coming to the defense and the goalies – Vienna Iacona for the Vikings and Jacqueline Stofa for the Spartans.
Iacona’s best game of the season was against Maryland 4A state champion South River April 24, an 8-6 loss, where she recorded 13 saves.
The time and place for Tuesday’s game are yet to be announced.
