Girls’ lacrosse advances in states
By: Bob Nuse
At this time last year, Sara Cogswell was one frustrated lacrosse player.
"I had a stress fracture, so I had to sit out about half the season," the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North senior said. "It’s exciting to play in the state tournament this year because last year I just watched because I was injured."
This year, Cogswell is healthy and playing as well as ever. On Tuesday, she scored six goals as the Knights topped Montville, 16-6, in the opening round of the North Jersey A state tournament. With the win, WW-P North advanced to face Princeton in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Princeton reached the quarterfinals with a 14-7 win at Old Bridge. Louise Finnell scored six goals and four assists for the Little Tigers, while Sarah Wright added four goals and three assists.
The winner of Thursday’s game would likely play at top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan on Tuesday.
"We played very well," WW-P North coach Beth Mitchell said of the win over Montville. "I’m real proud of them. We have some good athletes and great lacrosse players. Sara Cogswell played so well. And she and a couple of the other girls gave blood earlier in the day, so I was a little worried about how they would hold up."
The six goals on Tuesday ran her season total to 34, second on the team behind Valerie DePelteau’s 65 goals. After missing most of last season, Cogswell came out strong this season right from the start, helping the Knights to a 12-2 record.
"I played over the summer with a lot of college players and against good competition, so I came back and played pretty naturally," Cogswell said. "I played soccer in the fall and then I played indoor lacrosse in the winter. So I was feeling good when the season started."
And all season long she has helped a North offense that has averaged just under 15 goals a game this season.
"Sara played last year, but she had a stress fracture in her leg and missed half of the season," Mitchell said. "Now we have her back and all year long she has been playing very well. Last year, at the beginning of the season she had some frustration scoring goals. She was always so close but she didn’t score much. This year she has done a great job of finding the back of the net. She’s a great runner and she works hard in practice."
While DePelteau has been the big weapon on offense, players like Cogswell, Katie Lalli, Marie Sutton, Wynne Hydo and Shannon Bulk have also found the back of the net quite often. That has helped the offense sustain the graduation loss of leading scorers Laura Trzasko and Noelle Musco.
"We lost Laura and Noelle and they were most of our offense last year," Cogswell said. "And we lost Liz Yan, who was a real good player. But the core of our team has really stepped up this year. We have a lot of underclassmen who have done a great job for us. I’m just happy to be playing in the state tournament. It was tough last year not being able to play."
This season will be the end of the line on the lacrosse field for Cogswell, who will attend the University of Virginia, a program that will be playing in the national semifinals this weekend at Princeton.
"I might play club lacrosse, but their team is really good, so I don’t think I’d be able to play for them," she said. "Hopefully we can do well in the states. Our team is very well balanced. We have some good players on offense and on defense. It’s good to have that kind of balance."
And it’s nice to have Cogswell back in the lineup. It sure beats the frustration of having to watch from the sidelines.