Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

LEHMAN TWP. – Lampeter-Strasburg won its first district girls lacrosse playoff game last season in Claudia Ovchinnikoff’s first season as a head coach.

For the encore under the former NCAA Division I Offensive Player of the Year, the Pioneers went a significant step further.

Penn State recruit Kelsey Kimmel scored eight goals and Lampeter-Strasburg rode a fast start to a 15-10 victory over Wyoming Seminary in a PIAA Class 2A girls lacrosse state tournament opener Tuesday.

While the Pioneers were winning their state debut, the Blue Knights were falling to 1-9 on the state level by losing in the first round for the sixth straight year.

The game, however, represented progress as Wyoming Seminary put together a much more competitive game than in losing the last four years by a combined 66-15.

“I’m proud of the progress,” said Wyoming Seminary coach Catie Kersey, who hopes the strong finish will boost the confidence of the Blue Knights in potential future state games. “I don’t regret anything.

“ … If there’s one thing about this team, it’s that they’re incredibly mentally tough. They pulled it together as a team.”

Lampeter-Strasburg scored the game’s first six goals, but Wyoming Seminary surged back into more competitive situations three times.

The Blue Knights got within 7-4 at halftime. They cut a 10-5, second-half deficit to 10-7 and 11-8. Then, they scored the game’s last two goals to reduce the game’s biggest lead to five with 3:07 left.

“I think it took us about 10 minutes to believe that we actually could hang with this team,” Wyoming Seminary coach Catie Kersey said. “Once we started working hard out there and more than going through the motions, it made a huge difference.”

Lampeter-Strasburg was able to possess the ball from there, keeping Wyoming Seminary from managing any shots at getting any closer.

Christina Kilyanek had three goals and an assist while Grace Parsons had two goals and an assist. Emily Matthews and Paige Parsons each had a goal and an assist. Parker Callahan scored the other goal.

“Similar to other days when we’ve had success, a lot of our goals came off of assists,” Kersey said. “I think when we were doing that, we were far more successful moving the ball, forcing them to play defense on all seven players as opposed to just one.”

Mia Raineri, a four-year starter in goal, made 18 saves to finish her career with more than 600.

“Their goalie played a phenomenal game,” Ovchinnikoff said. “She definitely kept them in the game.”

McKenna Conklin added four goals for Lampeter-Strasburg, the District 3 fourth-place team, which improved to 15-6.

Kimmel, a four-year starter, leads the way for the state quarterfinalist with more than 100 goals this season.

“Hands down, she’s the best player our program has ever had,” Ovchinnikoff said.

Ovchinnikoff, a former U.S. National Team player, is a Temple University Hall of Famer, who moved back to Lancaster County after serving as an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina.

“We have the talent to go pretty far,” Ovchinnikoff said.

The Wyoming Valley Conference and District 2 Class 2A champion Blue Knights finished their season 17-4.

https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Lacrosse-clip-art-images-illustrations-photos-1.jpg.optimal.jpg

By Tom Robinson

For Times Leader