Western Albemarle’s girls lacrosse team has been solid all year, but injuries have prevented the Warriors from really being at full strength, particularly on offense, until right about now.
It showed Saturday as Western cranked up the offense and rolled 21-8 over E.C. Glass in the Class 4 state quarterfinals, locking up a spot in the state final four.
“We’re really clicking on offense, everyone is catching the ball which is great,” said Western senior Sophie Lanahan. “Everyone is coming back and we have our set offense again which has been super exciting.”
Western sophomore Reeve Goldstein, fellow sophomore Maggie Craytor and Lanahan all had explosive days on attack, setting a torrid offensive pace that the Hilltoppers struggled to match from the start as Western built a 13-4 lead before halftime.
Goldstein finished with five goals and three assists, Craytor had five goals and two assists and Lanahan dished out seven assists to go with a hat trick.
Goldstein and Lanahan triggered the attack from behind the cage and they’ve clearly developed an incredible level of chemistry that helps them push the Western offense to new levels of efficiency. Against the Hilltoppers Western had assists on 12 of those 21 goals.
“It’s really special, I’m really going to miss her next year,” Goldstein said. “We’ve just gotten to know each other’s play so well, we have like telepathy.”
Meanwhile, the Western defense and junior keeper Kennedy Buntrock made sure that explosive effort held up in a big way with a sterling defensive effort. Buntrock registered 10 saves while Katie Alhusen, Annie McGahren, Grace Shook and Jean-Nika VanDer Westhuizen provided a stable backline that regularly forced E.C. Glass into some tough shots. They made Glass’ Tess Ahrens work for her scoring all night as Aherns scored four goals but took 10 shots to get there.
“(Buntrock) played insane, she did really really well tonight,” Goldstein said. “In practice she’s always working at 1000 percent even when some of us are fooling around, she keeps us in check.”
Those injuries, in a way, have also strengthened the Warriors, increasing their flexibility and depth. While those three attackers lit it up, Western also got a hat trick and an assist from Mallory Greene, two goals from Taylor Florin and a goal each from Meghan Hundley and Mclean Stokes. There are just so many potent weapons, defending the Warriors almost becomes a game of pick your poison.
“We’ve kind of gotten used to playing without some of our main defenders and main attackers, but we’ve been working a lot on playing without them in practice,” Goldstein said. “We’re ready for anything at this point.”
Greene hauled in seven draw controls on the day while Stokes and Alhusen each had three.
Rockbridge is the next squad that’ll have to pick their poison when facing Western as the Warriors hit the road to take on a squad they beat during the regular season Tuesday in the state semifinals. That made Saturday the last home game for Western seniors Greene, Lanahan and Libby Janucik.
“It’s going to be so weird not playing here ever again, I’m so used to being here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays in the postseason,” Lanahan said. “This team has been the best team I’ve played in my whole four years and it means so much having my best friends playing with me.”
