North lacrosse falls despite sophomore
By: Justin Feil
Kimmy Collins was one of the top scorers on the West Windsor-Plainsboro North freshman girls’ lacrosse team last year.
She wasn’t sure it would mean she could do the same at the varsity level.
"I was nervous coming in," Collins said. "I didn’t know as a sophomore the difference between freshman and varsity and how big a jump it is. The girls helped me out. After first couple scrimmages, I thought it would be OK."
Collins has been better than OK. She has blossomed quickly into the leading scorer for the Knights, a perfect replacement for Katie Lalli, their leading scorer last season who graduated and is now third-leading scorer at Stevens Tech. The parallel came a little too close after the Knights split their most recent games, handling Lawrence, 15-1, Friday before falling, 19-10, to 10-1 North Hunterdon on Saturday.
"Kimmy Collins had six goals," said Knights head coach Beth Mitchell, whose team is 6-6. "It makes me think back to Katie Lalli. Lalli would score seven goals for us, and we still didn’t win. You have a girl like that, why can’t we all step it up? It’s so upsetting to have a girl working so hard and finding the back of the cage and you’re not winning.
"Unfortunately, Kimmy Collins stepped on the field and scored six goals against Princeton and against North Hunterdon and won’t have anything to show for it."
But the Knights do have more to show for their play as of late. The loss to North Hunterdon was their first in five games. In it, Katie Cummins added a goal and three assists while Erika Depelteau had a goal and two assists. Kerry Pehncke had 12 saves. It was the end of a solid four-game win streak after opening the year 2-5.
"We hadn’t been working as a team as much," Collins said. "It was frustrating. We would see a totally different team in practice than we saw in games. We were showing a high potential, but not seeing it in games. We’re finally showing people what we’re made of. We’ve been improving.
"Our connections through the midfield are really improving. On attack, we’re settling and seeing the open girl. Our defense is on their girls all the time. Everyone is working as one. It’s a big improvement overall."
It certainly has helped that Collins is feeling more and more comfortable at the varsity level with every game. She did all she could to prepare herself for the jump to varsity, and already had 36 goals and four assists in 12 contests. She claims she wasn’t this big of a scorer at the freshman level.
"I went to a couple camps over the summer and played a little bit there," Collins said. "I guess I improved a little bit.
"The most important thing is catching and throwing basic fundamentals. And you have to be able to catch every ball and shoot either way. Being able to use your left as much as your right is important too."
Collins and the Knights had all the fundamentals going in the first half Saturday. They came out strong against North Hunterdon and trailed just 8-6 at halftime.
"I think we came out fired up and they weren’t expecting that at all," Collins said. "They thought they were going to walk all over us. We wanted to show them we’re a good team that you have to play hard against. They picked it up in the second half. Their girls were strong at catching. In the first half, we dominated. We were pretty pumped (at halftime). They were getting frustrated because we were scoring so many."
Collins herself had five goals in the first half. It’s that sort of performance that has the Knights excited about the remainder of the season and the next two years.
"She’s only a sophomore," Mitchell said. "She was on the freshman team last year. This is the first year in the six years since I’ve been here that I’m playing a freshman. I did see her a little bit last year. I got to see her a lot over the summer. She attended one of my camps. I knew she was talented then. But I didn’t know she was that talented then. I knew there was potential.
"No. 1, she has great fundamental skills great catching and throwing. A lot of drills we’d go through, her movement is so fluent. It gave you an idea this girl is going to be good. You see a girl in camp, but you always wonder how it will play out when they play with all varsity girls. It’s helped Kimmy. She doesn’t play like a sophomore, or a freshman. It’s like she’s been playing three or four years. It’s a very cool thing."
It helps that Collins is quite an athlete. She also enjoys soccer and winter track, both of which she competes in for WW-P North. Lacrosse, though, is her favorite. She began playing it in seventh grade and early on found a penchant for notching goals.
"I used to play softball and then I tried lacrosse, and I realized I really like it so I stuck with that," Collins said. "I’ve always played midfield, even for soccer. I’ve been in an offensive mindset. Even from soccer, I’ve been in the offensive midfield."
Collins wasn’t sure she’d be able to make this big of an impact at the varsity level in her first season. And though she has found plenty of success as a goal-scorer, it isn’t forcing undue expectations of how many she should score ever game.
"I don’t feel too much pressure," Collins said. "Even if I’m not scoring, we have so many great girls, someone can come in and score a lot of goals. Everyone can score a goal, as we saw in the Lawrence game. Even if I feel I’m having an off game, anyone can score. It’s definitely easier when you know you have your teammates behind you."
Collins gives the Knights a proven finisher. She is able to do so in a variety of ways. Her ability showed brightest in a game against top-caliber players like North Hunterdon’s.
"She was awesome," Mitchell said. "That girl, she’s in the right spot all the time. She did awesome off the feed, off the 1v1. She’s really good."
The addition of Collins has helped the Knights replace a valued scorer that graduated. It’s allowed them to retain high expectations for their team, expectations that are being met with a recent stretch that has WW-P North surging.
"It gave us an extra boost to show us we can win all these games and beat these teams no one thought we could beat," Collins said. "It’s a big confidence boost to show every team they can’t take us lightly and we’re going to come out and play every game hard."