Topsfield foursome fares well at national lacrosse tournament

Cara Spilsbury

June 13, 2007 03:03 pm

— Over a recent weekend, four Topsfield teens hopped in the car with their families and drove south for hours. With every mile of highway, the mercury rose and the air got thicker and wetter.
But this wasn't the usual start-of-summer escape, relaxing on a beach somewhere. These girls were in Bethlehem, Penn. to represent the Lower New England states in one of the most competitive lacrosse tournaments in the country.
Tospfield's Sam Taylor, Katie Herter, Kathleen Ragan and Michaela Colbert were four of nearly 150 athletes from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island to be selected for one of the five LNE teams.
"It was a whole different level from what we played in high school," said Ragan. "It was a great experience."
Hosted by Lehigh University, the tournament featured teams from regions all over the country and some of the best lacrosse players. College coaches lined the fields during every match, as the stars from their respective high schools and prep schools got a taste of the level of competition that the rest of the U.S. has to offer.
Some of the biggest competition came from the Mid-Atlantic states and the South, where collegiate lacrosse powers like Johns Hopkins, Virginia and Duke call home and the game is the most popular.
"It was competitive, but not cutthroat," remembered Katie's mother, Lauren Herter. "It really had a festival atmosphere."
The tournament was a reunion of sorts for the girls, who all started their careers humbly with the Tribal Lacrosse program in Topsfield (see related story). They even played on the same team together one season when they were in seventh and eighth grades under coach Sarah Powers.
"These kids have a bright future ahead of them," said Powers, an admission associate at the Pingree School in South Hamilton. "I'm very proud. People don't realize that it's a big, big deal. Many of them end up getting recruited for college."
The pressure of college coaches watching was intimidating and nerve-racking, say the local athletes. Even Taylor, who played on the top team, wasn't immune to nerves.
"I ran the wrong way once," she said, laughing.
On the draw, Taylor picked up the ball and started running away from the pack. It wasn't until she almost took a shot on her own goalie that she realized her mistake.
"I thought everyone was cheering for me," she remembered. "But we ended up scoring on the play, so it turned out OK."
This past season, the girls played at different high schools, but for two days and five games, the girls were back playing together for varying levels of LNE teams in the tournament.
When one of the teams wasn't playing, the four midfielders made sure to watch their Topsfield friends play in the other games.
They not only shared the field with some of the country's most highly touted lacrosse players, but they faired incredibly well, even after practicing just twice as a team.
LNE V, Colbert's team, won their division. LNE III, Ragan and Herter's team, finished in second place, only losing that one time in the final game. And LNE I, Taylor's team, had a chance to play in the consolation round of the top level of competition.
For Colbert's team, their performance in the tournament was one for the record books: A LNE V team had never won their level.
"I didn't think we'd make it that far," she said. "After every game our coach kept saying, 'It's so good we've gotten this far. Keep playing.' So we really weren't expecting that much."
It wasn't easy getting picked for the Lower New England teams, even though the four Topsfieldites are some of the top players in the area. Tryouts lasted for three hours the first day, after which the field of 300 girls was cut in half. Then they practiced until the remaining girls were placed on one of the five team levels.
"I think having four Topsfield girls there says a lot about where we came from," said Taylor, who was cut from the tryout her freshman year and made LNE IV as a sophomore.
All four players picked up a lacrosse stick at a young age.
When many of their friends were playing in the little league, the four girls turned to lacrosse for something new and different.
Ragan was drawn to lacrosse when she saw her friend playing a game, and Colbert was looking for an athletic alternative to spring soccer. A few also have siblings that have followed in their footsteps in the game.
Some of the girls even got a leg up from their family. Herter's father played lacrosse at Bowdoin College and her older sister played in high school.
Taylor also has a little lacrosse in her blood. Her parents both played in high school and briefly at Union College.
The lacrosse standouts hope that their successes in the sport will not only lead to college careers | an idea that all four are entertaining | but will also inspire some younger girls to keep playing lacrosse.
"I hope they see me as a good player," Colbert said. "I want them to watch me and be like, 'She's so good. I want to play like her.'"

Meet the players
Sam Taylor
Age: 17
School: junior at Pingree School, South Hamilton
Position: midfield
Club team: Team Revolution
First played: fifth grade
Other sports: soccer and basketball
Katie Herter
Age: 16
School: junior at Brooks School, North Andover
Position: midfield
Club team: none
First played: fourth grade
Other sports: field hockey and ice hockey
Kathleen Ragan
Age: 16
School: sophomore at Masconomet
Position: midfield
Club team: Granite State Elite
First played: sixth grade
Other sports: cross country and indoor track
Michaela Colbert
Age: 16
School: sophomore at Pingree School
Position: midfield
Club team: Granite State Elite
First played: sixth grade
Other sports: soccer

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