2019 Inside Lacrosse Indoor HS Championships

[njbill]

This tournament, which characterizes itself as being the national (indoor) high school girls lacrosse championships, was held this past weekend in Manheim, Pa. I made it out for a portion of the Saturday schedule. I really like the event, though indoor lacrosse is a lot different from the outdoor game played in the spring. McDonogh won the inaugural tourney two years ago. Mt. Sinai won last year. This year Eastport-South Manor beat Mt. Sinai 14-8 in the finals.

The quarter finals results:

Mt. Sinai 13 Northport 11
Lake Highland Prep 19 Garden City 18
Eastport-South Manor 14 Riverhead 9
St. Paul’s School for Girls 22 Agnes Irwin 21

The semis:

Mt. Sinai 12 Lake Highland 9
Eastport-South Manor 12 SPSG 10

Games were 8 v. 8 (7 field players and a goalie) played on a field about 40-45 yards in length (goal line to goal line). Two players had to stay behind the midfield restraining line. Two 25 minute running clock halves. There was no draw following goals. The ball was given to the goalie who then had to start a clear which she inevitably did at lightning speed after a goal was scored. There was a draw to start the game and the second half.

The tourney had 32 teams which were, in part, selected based on the final 2018 top 25 Inside Lacrosse rankings. Presumably, all 25 teams were invited; 15 attended. Those that didn’t attend were: Manhasset, Glenelg (Md. public), Moorestown, Glenelg (Md. private), Penfield, Darien, Ridgewood, Wellesley, West Islip, and Massapequa. The organizers invited 17 other teams to fill out the draw. The teams were seeded 1-32 and then assigned to eight four team pools. Each team played three pool games. Winners of the pools advanced to the playoffs.

The participating teams and their seeds:

1. Notre Dame Prep (IAAM)
2. McDonogh
3. American Heritage
4. Cold Spring Harbor
5. Georgetown Visitation
6. Christian Brothers Academy
7. Bishop Ireton
8. Mt. Sinai
9. Novato
10. New Canaan
11. Holton Arms (Md. private)
12. Fayetteville-Manlius
13. St. Stephens, St. Agnes
14. Garden City
15. Eastport-South Manor
16. Northport
17. Milton
18. Hutchinson School (Tenn. private)
19. Good Counsel (Md. private)
20. Agnes Irwin
21. Mattituck
22. Ward-Melville
23. Episcopal Academy (Pa. private)
24. Archbishop Carroll (Pa. private)
25. Lassiter
26. Riverhead
27. Lake Highland Prep
28. St. Paul’s School for Girls (IAAM)
29. Maryvale
30. John Carroll
31. Unionville
32. Sacred Heart (Conn. private)

The teams were from the following areas:

IAAM 5 teams
Long Island 8
Florida 2
D.C. 1
Other Md. 2
Connecticut 2
Upstate NY 2
Virginia 2
Calif. 1
Pa. 4
Georgia 2
Tennessee 1

No teams from New Jersey. No Maryland publics.

Only one of the top eight seeds (Mt. Sinai) made the playoffs. Three of the playoff teams were in the IL 2018 top 25. Five of the eight playoff teams were from Long Island. Surprisingly, only one IAAM team made the playoffs. In pool play, Notre Dame Prep was beaten 15-7 by Northport, and McDonogh was defeated 17-16 by Eastport-South Manor. This was the second year in a row that ESM beat McD at this event.

The event had a great program (also available on-line) with full schedules and rosters that included numbers(!!). The seedings were based on the 2018 Inside Lacrosse rankings, which the organizers tweaked to try to achieve geographic diversity and to avoid regular season matchups. The seedings were, to put it charitably, odd. Since this was an Inside Lacrosse event, I understand why they started with IL rankings. But those rankings are notoriously screwball so things were out of whack from the get-go. The adjustments only made things worse. Last year’s champ (Mt. Sinai) seeded 8? Holton Arms 11? Hutchinson Tennessee 18? Three IAAM teams seeded 28 (St. Paul’s), 29 (Maryvale), and 30 (John Carroll)? Chris Robinson’s company was one of the organizers of this tournament. His new school, Lake Highland Prep, was seeded 27 yet they were placed in one of the easiest groups with Holton Arms, CBA, and Ward-Melville. Hey, to the organizer go the spoils. But to their credit they did manage to win their pool and advanced to the semis of the playoffs, beating Garden City in the quarters. Big kudos for that.

Given the time of year, the logistics, and the cost, it is remarkable the organizers are able to gather such an elite group of schools. Not every top team attended to be sure, but a number of the “fill ins” did quite well. Based on the rather limited number of teams I saw and looking through the results, I would say only one or two teams (no, I won’t name them) really didn’t belong.

The tournament was held at the Spooky Nook Indoor Sports Complex in Manheim, Pa, which is a bit NW of York. Baltimore is the closest large metro area (Philadelphia a close second). Spooky Nook serves as the training facility for the US National Field Hockey team. Thus, a number of fields have field hockey surfaces (think Maryland women’s lacrosse field). Three of the fields used at this tournament were on field hockey surfaces in a large inflated dome. Two fields were inside the main building and were standard turf. The sight lines were great for the indoor fields, with elevated catwalks on two sides for one field and three sides for the other. Spectator viewing was not nearly as good in the dome where the only place you could watch was in stands behind the goal at one end of the field. Still, given the small field size (40-45 yards (?) from goal line to goal line), it wasn’t all that difficult to get at least a decent view of most of the action.

I was able to see either full or partial games involving Notre Dame Prep, McDonogh, American Heritage, Georgetown Visitation, SSSA, Milton, Hutchinson, Good Counsel, Agnes Irwin, Mattituck, and SPSG. The best team I saw was American Heritage which thrashed a pretty good Good Counsel squad. And this was without superstar Caitlyn Wurzburger. (She was on the roster, but I didn’t see her on the field.) I was a bit surprised to learn later that Garden City beat AH in pool play since AH had looked so strong, and very surprised that Lake Highland Prep defeated Garden City in the playoffs. But then that Chris Robinson fellow knows a little bit about coaching girls lacrosse. I had no doubt he would be successful down in Florida, but this quickly? Wow. I also saw Milton give no. 1 seed NDP a real battle, eventually falling 25-23. Milton lead for almost the entire first half. I have seen Milton a handful of times over the years and am always impressed by the quality of their play.

[admin]

Sounds like a good tourney. Thanks for the info.

[Dr. Tact]

Daughters did this the previous 2 years....great facility, but...paying to park and no warm up areas were a negative to the arguably best collection of High school (and younger) teams in the East Coast.

My eldest loved being able to play her games then go and watch her future college teammates play. Really like the concept....

Surprised by the results this year, but its good for the game to have multiple teams come out of the lower rankings to shine....Good locally and nationally.

[Delco Transplant]

Great write up Bill. Would have been great to see Moorestown there. Maybe next year! Looking forward to the upcoming season. Lots of changes in NJ. New coaches for last year's top 2 teams - Moorestown and Ridgewood. Looking forward to the Cape Henlopen Playday on March 16th

[njbill]

Per the Cape Henlopen website, the following schools will be participating at the March 16 Play Day: Cape Henlopen, Bishop Ireton, St. Stephen’s St. Agnes, Unionville, Marriotts Ridge, Moorestown, Kent Island, and Glenelg (public). The only information I have been able to glean so far about the schedule, and this from the Bishop Ireton website, is that BI will be playing Moorestown, Cape Henlopen, and Unionville. To me, that says the overall schedule has probably been prepared which would mean the participating schools know who their opponents will be.

[HeadCase]

This is a well-run tournament and the facilities are some of the best! The option to stay on the grounds of Spooky Nook makes it a fun weekend for the players as well as the families. Good to see the mix of teams also - I'm most familiar with Northern VA so it's always nice to see BI & SSSA in the mix. I would've liked to have seen Woodson represent the VA public schools but not to be this year. I'm hoping they secure an invite for next year's event. Also really enjoyed watching Milton. Godby has built that program from the ground up and they continue to improve & reload every year. All in all, a great event and a nice opportunity to enjoy some good lacrosse (albeit indoor) as well as one of the best facilities in the country.