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Coach Suzanne Ontso’s girls lacrosse team has played five games so far in the early going, winning three of them.
The Red & Black first doubled up host Wilmington on April 1, 10-5. The home opener against Stoneham followed two days later, and it was another victory for Winchester to the tune of 17-7.
The Winchester girls then lost their first game of the season to non-league Weston at home on April 5, 16-8. Host Melrose also defeated them on April 9, 14-5. But they bounced back to beat visiting Arlington last Friday afternoon, 18-5.
Against Wilmington, senior tri-captain Lulu Murphy played a solid game in net, making 14 saves. Anya Wickramasinghe won the majority of the team’s draws against the Wildcats. She took 19 in the game.
Ontso mentioned that Sloane McCarthy came up big on the attack in this game with four goals and one assist to help lead the way on offense. She also set the tone early on by scoring one of her four goals just 36 seconds into the contest. Siobhan Sullivan chipped in with two goals and one assist.
Wilmington kept it close until the fourth quarter. The game was tied at two after one quarter. But Winchester was able to take the lead for good at halftime, 5-3, while extending its advantage to three after three quarters, 7-4.
Ontso has been the team’s longtime varsity coach since 1995. Altogether, she’s been with the program for 32 years.
The veteran coach had a great turnout for the first day of practice on March 17, and as a result of the sport’s popularity in town, the Red & Black are only one of two Middlesex League teams – Melrose being the other school – to have a freshman squad. Isabel Bush, Class of 2017, is Ontso’s JV coach. Andria Bremhorst is in charge of the freshman club.
Attack Izzy Arangio, middie Mackensie Morse and Murphy are this year’s captains.
Ontso considers the strengths of this year’s team to lie within its leadership that features returnees from all over the field.
“Overall, we have been working on our ball movement (since Day 1), while also limiting turnovers and using our speed as an asset,” she said.
“The returnees have really put in the work during the offseason,” added Ontso. “Senior Anya Wickramasinghe, in particular, also did a great job in the preseason, and was our center for the opener against Wilmington. She always comes up with a lot of successful draws, and is also becoming a huge connection at midfield for us.”
Last spring, the Winchester girls were the 26th seed in the Division 1 power rankings after finishing up with a 6-12 regular season record. They ended up losing to Andover (9-10), the seventh seed, in the Round of 32, 14-5. When it was all said and done, however, top-seed Central Catholic won the Division 1 state title after beating Wellesley, the second seed, 14-9.
This year, Ontso considers Reading, Belmont and Melrose to be the teams to beat in the Middlesex League.
“They are all coming off strong seasons with lots of returnees,” she said.
After taking on host Woburn Tuesday (April 15), they will close out the week against non-league host Haverhill Thursday night (April 17) in a game at Haverhill Stadium, starting at 6:45 p.m.
