Odachowski aids turnaround
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
A lot has changed for the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls lacrosse team this season.
The Pirates have a new coach, a new attitude and some newfound success. But one thing that has not changed is the production they’ve received from Megan Odachowski.
”She is off to a real good start,” said South coach Bryan Fisher, whose team has opened the season with five straight wins. “She is one of our captains and a senior leader. She’s scored a lot of goals in the past. She’s a four-year starter and had 76 goals coming into this season, so we knew she could score goals.”
Odachowski has not missed a beat this year. She has scored 21 goals in the first five games of the season to give her 97 for her career. And her scoring has been just one reason why a team that was 3-13 last year is off to a 5-0 start.
”We saw some success with our scrimmages and that has carried over into the regular season,” Fisher said. “I really think the work the girls put in over the winter has helped a lot in getting us off to this good start. It’s great for them to see that they put in the work and it is paying off so far.”
Last week, Odachowski showed just how much she means to the Pirates’ offense. She scored four goals and added an assist in a 10-9 win over Montgomery, then scored four more goals in a 14-3 win over Ewing.
”You know what you are going to get with Megan every day,” Fisher said. “She’s a great leader and she plays with a lot of confidence. She’s the leader of the offense and the other girls feed off her a lot. She moves the ball down the field and when we’re on a fast-break, they look for her.”
Megan Odachowski is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”I am not really surprised that we are doing well,” Odachowski said. “We, as a team, put in so much work in during the off-season to get better that I am not surprised at all. I think we’re all pretty excited that all the hard work has paid off. We played in a winter league and did Team Turnpike in the summer. So we put in a lot of work.”
Odachowski added four goals and two assists in an 18-5 win over Lawrence on Wednesday, moving her career total to 97 goals. Since she started with the Pirates her freshman year, she’s been a steady contributor to the offense.
”I just try to play my game and when the goals come, they come,” she said. “It’s been exciting to see so many different people contributing to the wins. Coach Fisher has pumped a lot of life into the program. The transition has been an easy one with him as the coach.”
Fisher is the third head coach Odachowski and her fellow seniors have played for over the past four years. But even with the changes, she would never trade her lacrosse experience.
”I started in seventh grade,” Odachowski said. “I had played softball because my dad was a big baseball buff. But then I came across lacrosse in seventh grade and I fell in love with it. I am glad I made the switch.”
Now she’s hoping her senior year with the Pirates will be the team’s most successful yet.
”We’re just taking one game at a time and focusing on whatever challenges we have ahead of us,” said Odachowski, who is not planning to continue playing in college. “It feels like we have a completely new program. We’re trying not to focus on the past. We’re focused on this year and doing the best we can.
”You can see the difference this year with how we do against teams compared to last year. Montgomery handled us pretty easily last year and now this year we were able to beat them. That’s a big turnaround for us.”
A turnaround that has been helped by contributions from Odachowski.

