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52 | March 22, 2018 | The Mokena Messenger SPORTS
mokenamessenger.com
Girls Lacrosse
LW lacrosse makes IHSA debut with win
Steve Millar
Freelance Reporter
March 14 was a night
Maggie Huizinga had waited
a long time for.
The Lincoln-Way coop
lacrosse team opened
its season at home against
Naperville Central, for the
first time taking the field at
Lincoln-Way Central as a
school-sponsored team playing
an official IHSA sport.
Boys and girls lacrosse are
making its debut as an IHSA
sport this season and Huizinga,
a senior at Lincoln-
Way East, couldn’t be more
excited.
“It makes us more proud,”
Huizinga said. “We’ve
always represented our
schools, but now our schools
recognize us. Being able
to wear that Lincoln-Way
name means a lot, especially
because the schools have
had so much success in other
sports. It’s a prestigious
name.
“This is my last season,
and I want to help start
something that’ll hopefully
last for a long time. We want
to be the founders of a great
team and the stepping stones
for something great going
forward.”
Lincoln-Way’s debut was
an auspicious one. Sophomore
Caroline Behrens
scored six goals, Huizinga
added four, and Lincoln-
Way pulled away late for a
14-5 win.
“There are a lot of eyes on
us now since we’re the new
official sport, and we have
expectations we need to uphold,”
Huizinga said. “We
went out there and delivered.
I was really happy with how
we went out there and performed.”
Lincoln-Way coach Wei
Chenh was equally pleased.
“We had a lot of teamwork
on the field,” she said.
“We can definitely work on
communication a bit more,
but we supported each other
as teammates and that was
good to see.”
March 14 was an exciting
night as well for Chenh,
who’s been involved with lacrosse
in Illinois since high
school. She played for Lane
Tech from 2001 to 2004 and
went on to play at Lindenwood
University in Missouri.
She’s coached at Lane
Tech and Robert Morris College
and, most recently, for
the Eagles co-op team which
has players from Sandburg,
Andrew and Stagg.
“Now that it’s an IHSA
sport, it’s even more exciting,”
Chenh said. “I’ve
been around for a while
and to see the sport growing
like this is great to see.
If we can get more officials
and people who are willing
to coach, I can see the sport
really taking off in the Midwest.”
Behrens, a Lincoln-Way
East student, led the team
in scoring last season with
81 goals, and she picked
up right where she left off,
finding the net twice in the
opening six minutes to give
Lincoln-Way a 2-0 lead.
“I love getting our team
going,” Behrens said. “I love
encouraging everyone to go
out there and give it their
all and push them to new
heights. We came out and
got rolling right from the
start.”
Behrens, who scored again
19 minutes in to put Lincoln-
Way up 4-2, said she has to
make some adjustments now
that opponents know all
about her and focus on slowing
her down.
“I just have to focus on my
fundamentals and knowing
what I can do,” she said. “It’s
about believing in myself,
not letting opponents get in
my head and just working
around what they do.”
Naperville Central got
within 5-4 with three minutes
left in the first half, but
Huizinga and Hayley Brothen,
a senior at Lincoln-Way
East, scored back-to-back
goals to make it 7-4 at halftime.
Lincoln-Way rolled in the
second half, outscoring Naperville
Central 7-1.
“Halftime is when you
tweak a few things to make
it all connect,” Chenh said.
“The girls pushed themselves
to play even better in
the second half.”
After Naperville Central
scored the first goal of the
second half to cut it to 7-5,
Lincoln-Way scored the final
seven goals of the game.
Behrens made it 8-5 before
Huizinga scored backto-back
goals to push the
lead to five with just five
minutes to go.
“We practiced hard these
last few days, coming together
as a team with a bunch
of new girls,” Behrens said.
“We’re meshing well and really
working together.”
Grace Pawelczyk, Behrens,
Brothen and Hannah
Laverty all added goals in
the final five minutes for
Lincoln-Way.
Pawelczyk and Laverty
are both seniors at East.
Elizabeth Myotte, a sophomore
at East, made one
save.
Last year, in its final season
as a club team, Lincoln-
Way had its best season in
the program’s history, going
11-6.
Huizinga said the team developed
a new level of confidence
that’s carried over into
this year.
“Last year, we beat all expectations
we had,” she said.
“Every season we get better
Lincoln-Way Central’s Maddie Huizinga scores one of her four goals on the night against
Naperville Central March 14. It was the IHSA debut for the girls lacrosse team.
Photos by Julie McMann/22nd Century Media
The Knights’ Caroline Behrens goes for the ball. Behrens had a game-high six goals.
and better, so this season the
sky’s the limit for us.”
Delia Dohm, a junior at
Lincoln-Way Central, was
thrilled with the way her
team played in its first game.
“We’ve been strategizing
a lot getting ready for this,
and it felt good to finally get
out there and put everything
together,” she said. “I think
we started out really well.
There are still things to work
on, but it was nice to see us
all come together and play
like we did.”
Dohm said she and her
teammates are like a family.
“I feel like we all have a
special connection to each
other, even though we go to
different schools,” she said.
“It’s like anywhere you go,
you have a friend.”