Lynbrook regains winning form

After consecutive losses to start the season, the Lynbrook girls’ lacrosse team finally broke into the win column and regained the form that made it a tough out in last year’s playoffs with a 14-9 win over Calhoun last Friday.

Freshman Jenna Hendrickson scored three times, giving her six on the season, and junior Casey Kaplan added a goal and four assists. Kayleigh Stalter, Jillian Padilla and co-captain Sophia LoCicero had two tallies apiece.

Lynbrook began the season with 11-7 defeats to upstart Seaford on March 29 and Oceanside on April 4. The Lady Owls were 15-3 last spring were trying to have the momentum from a heartbreaking three-goal loss to top-seeded Wantagh in the Nassau Class C semifinal carry over into 2018.

“The weather obviously hurt us,” coach Vincent Terto said. “We didn’t have any non-league games, hardly had any scrimmages and we have a lot of new players at new positions. So with more experience, we’re going to get better.”

The offense was significantly weakened with the loss of graduate Molly Carter, who led all Long Island scorers with an incredible 109 goals and 172 points a year ago to earn her second Under Armour All-American honor. Tetro is hoping that the emergence of Hendrickson, Stalter and sophomore Elizabeth Murphy (32 goals in 2017) and the continued production of senior LoCicero (49 goals and 70 points last year) can help ease the loss.

Tetro is especially excited about Hendrickson’s potential. “I heard how good she is,” he said. “But to see her play, she’s an excellent player, has a great stick and a very good sense of how to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Senior Hope Germanakos was stellar in goal against Calhoun with 15 saves and has stopped 35 shots this season. Tetro has also noticed his netminder taking on a more leadership role on the field.

“She’s a wall back there,” Tetro said. “She’s coming in the best shape I’ve ever seen her. This is her fourth year starting and she’s taking on a huge leadership role.”

The defense is a little greener than last season, but junior midfielder Jessica Woll and senior middie Gina Giovinco both return to help assist on the back end. Tetro says Giovinco, the other co-captain, always does the little things on the field that never show up in the boxscore.

“She’s a groundball machine and she’s extremely fast between the 30s,” Tetro said of Giovinco. “She’s one of our lockdown defenders.”

For the Lady Owls to continue their upward trend, they’ll have to compete with the likes of Seaford, South Side, Oyster Bay, and Farmingdale, which dropped down from Conference I. Lynbrook visits Locust Valley this Friday at 5 p.m.

Treto believes his group could compete for first place during the regular season and go even further in the playoffs. 

“I think, on paper and what we see in practice, we definitely can get there,” he said.