Summit Defeats Mooresetown to Capture State Championship

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If you weren't at Rutgers' Lacrosse Stadium you missed one of the most exciting afternoons in Summit's sports history. It was inspiring to see the desire, skill, team spirit, stamina and pure athletic ablitity of these outstanding young women from Summit High School. The game started well for Summit as Cristina Curiale scored in the first minute of the game. However, Moorestown gave notice that this was going to be a tough 50 minutes when they tied the game two minutes later. Liza Hillenbrand got an unassisted goal 3 1/2 minutes later, and Summit was back up 2-1. But, Moorestown was not to be put off as they tied it up with 16 1/2 minutes left in the half. For the next 16 1/2 minutes a furious battle took place, but no scoring. In that interval Odette Nemes made a number of great saves as Moorestown spent most of those final minutes minutes of the half swarming in the Summit end of the field. Summit did manage a couple of fast breaks that looked promising, but errant passes led to naught. .

The second half picked right up where the first ended, with lots of furious action. Five minutes into the half Lydia Robinson took a nice pass from Katie Bowman and scored to put Summit back on top. The next six minutes were mostly Moorestown as they picked up two goals and took the lead for the first time in the game. For a moment Summit's spirits seemed to sag. But Allison Ballantyne revived them when she tied the game with 9 1/2 minutes left to play. A minute later Cristina Curiale took a pass from Erin Beaumont and scored. Summit was back in front 5-4 with a little over 8 minutes still left. With the lead, and a bunch of very tired legs, Summit seemed to go into a slow down mode. It wasn't a stall, but it certainly wasn't at the breakneck pace of earlier in the game. The question was, could Summit's seemingly exhausted squad hold on to the slim lead. With about 5 minutes left, Moorestown got loose with a couple of long passes and appeared headed for the tieing goal. Nemes made a great save to turn back the attack. As the game moved back and forth the clock ticked on. Summit got control of the ball again with a little less than a minute to go but couldn't hold on to it and Moorestown made one last assault on Summit's goal. Good defense by a tired Summit squad denied Moorestown a decent shot and with 8 seconds on the clock Summit regained possession. Two quick passes moved the ball into Moorestown territory and ran out the clock.

It was wonderful to watch the team in delirious celebration. Most of the Seniors had been playing together for more than four years and may be the best graduating class in the history of NJ women's Lacrosse. The whole team deserves every accolade they have been given.