There was no trophy this year, but there were plenty of milestones, achievements and happy memories for the Holy Spirit High School girls lacrosse team.
For the second straight year, the Spartans earned a trip to the Non-Public B state championship at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington. And although the golden plaque traveled north with Montclair Kimberley Academy after a 14-8 victory by the Cougars, Holy Spirit didn’t exactly leave empty-handed on their two-hour trip back to Absecon.
“I made nothing but good memories,” senior Maddie Abbott said. “I’ve learned so much from being on this team. It’s taught me so much, going to play at the college level.”
After a freshman year that was canceled by the pandemic, and a sophomore year that was spent recovering from an ACL injury, Abbott didn’t make her debut on the lacrosse field until last year, when she led the Spartans with 67 goals en route to the program’s first appearance in a state championship game.
This season, she punched in 50 more goals – including the 100th of her career – and led Holy Spirit back to the title game. It’s now starting to look like the Spartans will be a perennial contender.
“I just told them to remember this feeling,” Spartans coach Kylie Primeau said. “It’s something that will fuel our fire a little more.”
Primeau wrapped up her third season with the program, which progressed from an 8-9 rookie season to a combined 30-11 during the past two years. The Spartans were 14-5 this season, which included an appearance in the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament championship games against mighty Ocean City. Holy Spirit earned the No. 1 seed in the Non-Public B state tournament and arrived in the state championship game as expected after defeating their first two playoff opponents by a combined score of 36-12. Things just didn’t go their way in the final game of the season.
“We played a really strong game and we prepared well. We just didn’t come out on top,” said Abbott, who scored twice in the final. “It happens sometimes. But it’s fine. They’ll come back next year and have a strong season. Hopefully, I can have a strong season at Radford [University].”
Primeau also looked at the big picture. “You look at a season, and you look at a 14-5 record. You look at us in our third year of what we call a building program, and we’ve been to the state final twice. I’m incredibly proud of them. They don’t stop. They give it their all. I’m happy I can be part of it.”
Although Abbott, along with fellow seniors Kira Murray and Hailey Mastro, will be greatly missed next year, there’s still a ton of talent returning next year. Maybe the third time will be the charm?
“Three of these seniors have been pivotal in the dedication that they’ve given to our program,” Primeau said. “Leadership-wise, it’s nice when you have three or four freshmen on the field and they can feed off the senior leadership that we have.”
Leading scorer Hanna Watson (58 goals) will be back. So will Brielle Soltys (49 goals) and Kendall Murphy (26). So will a pair of freshmen in Lauren Cella and Taylor Lyons, who each showed no fear in contributing two goals apiece in the state championship game. The list goes on.
“We had such a strong season, and everything was building throughout the year,” Abbott said. “I have very high hopes for them to come back and win this next year.”
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