By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Hannah Levy has provided a steady dose of highlights for the Princeton Day School girls lacrosse team.
She’s had to.
With a young cast around her and the cast getting younger and less experienced due to a rash of injuries, the junior midfielder has had to step up her play even more than expected. She has responded with her best year to date, though she evades praise as easily as she does defenders.
”I don’t think my playing has changed all that much,” Levy said. “I might be playing slightly better. I knew my role had to change. I had to up my scoring. I had to take on a bigger offensive role.
”Starting freshman year, I was put more back at center. I’m kind of moving back and forth. I play attack, A wing, attack, and I play center. My main goal is running the offense. “
Levy scored three goals and dished out two assists as the Panthers stopped Great Rd. rival Stuart Country Day, 14-5, Monday. The Panthers had a balanced attack with Lucy Linville and Corrine Urisko each scoring three goals apiece, and Cami McNeely and Shannon Towle scored two goals each. Liz Gudgel also had a goal. Sarah Trigg made four saves as the Panthers moved above .500 at 7-6.
”We’ve gotten good offense from Hannah and Corrine Urisko,” said PDS head coach Jill Thomas, whose team plays at Princeton High School today. “Sarah Trigg in goal continues to improve every day. Our defense is starting to come together and play and take some risks and play together.
”The young kids haven’t had a choice but to step up. It’s a whole different level from JV to varsity and the fact we’re playing a pretty competitive level of varsity. We ask them do to a lot and work hard and we’re starting to reap the benefits.”
PDS has won two in a row since a loss to Lawrenceville, but there’s been a bigger turnaround than that from a slow start to the year. After three losses in Florida, the Panthers lost their first two games upon returning to New Jersey to start 0-5.
”I admit it was a little scary to start with an 0-5 record,” Levy said. “It was a little humiliating at points. But, expect for one game at Florida, we were so close. We were getting there as team. We lost by one or two goals. It wasn’t like we were getting blown out. It was a matter of getting our act together and playing a full 50 minutes. We had moments of brilliance, it wasn’t quite strung together yet.”
Levy, a veteran who has remained healthy, provided much needed leadership through the middle. The Panthers have just one senior, Trowle, and two of their co-captains, Zeeza Cole and Andrea Jenkins, have been hurt. Sophomore Allison Mascioli reinjured her knee in Florida and is out for the season, Mary Travers has been out since a injury suffered in hockey season and promising freshman Morgan Foster has been out since Florida.
”It’s been a really tough season,” Levy said. “We graduated some really good seniors. It was a lot of starting over. I think we’re just pushing through. We definitely have some new talent on the team and they’re playing hard and sticking to the game plan.
”We definitely have a long way to go,” she added. “We’ve had some good wins. That shows the promise we have.”
Before the loss to Lawrenceville, the Panthers upended Hopewell Valley, 13-12, and then Hun, 11-10. Levy was huge in both with give goals apiece, while providing a combined three assists.
”We count on her a lot,” Thomas said. “She’s one of the sure-hands people. We ask her to do a lot of things in the midfield. We ask her to settle the offense. We ask her to put the ball in the net. She’s got a number of assists as well, so she’s doing both. She’s scoring for us, and she’s setting other people up. She just plays hard all the time.”
Levy has been happy to see the Panthers’ hard work pay off with some signature wins.
”It shows what we can become as a team,” said the Yardley, Pa. resident. “The Hopewell game was us working together. The Hun game, we pulled together at the last second against a pretty good team. We have a lot of promise and it’s played out so far, so I’ve been happy.”
In addition to her play in games, Levy has tried to lend a veteran presence to the newcomers to varsity. She was one two years ago as a freshman, when she started playing varsity at PDS in all three of her sports. She also plays soccer and basketball.
”I definitely sympathize with the freshmen,” Levy said. “They’ve come a long way. It’s not easy to walk into a Jill Thomas practice freshman year. I’ve seen great improvement. We have a lot of talent that we didn’t necessarily know about and they’re filling in the spots we need.”
Added Thomas: “They’ve improved as individual players and now they’re starting to gel as a team. Their individual skills keep getting better because they keep working hard every day. They’re getting more confident in their skills, and that’s going to carry over to a nice team in the future.”
The Panthers are working on making themselves an even stronger team for the final month of the season. They’ve been focusing on improving their transition passing, spreading out on offense and making better decisions on when to go to goal and when to find a teammate. Defensively, they continue to harp on communicating well and sliding to help each other.
”We definitely can count on our defense,” Levy said. “That’s something that distinguishes us. A lot of teams in the county, they’ll win 20-16, and we usually keep the score lower than that. We give teams a run for their money. We play tight team defense, and that’s something that’s carried us through.”
It’s the defense that Thomas points out in wins over Hopewell and Hun. The Panthers have been at their best when they’ve followed that formula.
”Really playing pretty darn good defense, just really being tough,” Thomas said. “Doing all the little things right and really giving a terrific effort all the way around. Everybody just putting it out there.”
From veterans like Trowle, Levy and Urisko to newcomers spread throughout the field, the Panthers are getting top effort. It’s starting to pay off as PDS has come all the way back from a slow start to win seven of eight games and get on course for a big finish.
”We’re still pretty banged up, but we had quality wins against Hopewell and Hun,” Thomas said. “We’re getting better every day. We’re really young. We’ve been missing key players all season. Being young and that, we’re hopefully finding our niche as we get ready to go in the tournament.”
