Andrew Heller: Gov. Mifflin girls lacrosse team hoping togetherness leads to success in 2022

Mar. 29—The Gov. Mifflin girls lacrosse team is taking a team-first mentality into the 2022 season as the Mustangs are looking to win their first BCIAA title after finishing as the runner-up in 2021. Coming off a 12-6 season, including 7-2 in the league, Mifflin returns six seniors and all but one starter.

Gov. Mifflin lost to Twin Valley 20-4 in the 2021 BCIAA championship game and fell to South Western 14-6 in the quarterfinals of the District 3 Class 3A Tournament.

With a team hungry to outdo last year's performance , Mustangs coach Chris Allen said she believes her team has what it takes to make a deeper postseason run in 2022.

"We want to outdo last year," Allen said. "Last year was a learning year and we talked a lot about the things that happened and how we're going to fix it, so I think that's making a difference for them this year: to recognize their mistakes, accept them, and figure out what's going to work next."

The Mustangs have a powerful offense built around three All-Berks seniors who combined for 186 goals and 292 total points in 2021: Sophia Stanislawczyk, Eliza Enriquez and Mia Beilhart.

The Mustangs are 1-1 in 2022 and the trio on offense has accounted for 22 of the team's 34 goals with Enriquez scoring nine, Stanislawczyk seven and Beilhart six.

"They're just strong athletes," Allen said. "They've put in a lot of work a lot of hard work physically to improve themselves and they've been playing for a long time together. Their stick work is phenomenal and we've been doing a lot more footwork, which I think has helped the whole team."

Allen also emphasized the importance of the team's solid chemistry. According to Allen, the team motto for the season is, "The better I am, the better we are."

The team's heightened togetherness is not lost on the players either.

"I'm just really excited for the season because a lot of our starters are back," Stanislawcyzk said. "After we lost our COVID season I feel I need to motivate everyone more to take every opportunity we can."

Stanislawczyk, the team captain, said that although the offensive trio stands out on paper, the team still succeeds working as a whole.

"I think it's very important that when you look at the stats all three of us are evenly spread out and all of our other attackers are right behind us too, which is equally important because we like to get the ball to everyone," Stanislawczyk said.

Enriquez shared Stanislawcyzk's sentiments and added that the girls' long history of playing together has strengthened their play. All three have gone through the ranks in girls lacrosse and have committed to playing lacrosse in college as Stanislawczyk will play at Saint Joseph's and Enriquez and Beilhart will play at West Chester.

"It's been really awesome to see the team grow together and everyone turn into the players they are today," Enriquez said. "And with the seniors, I've been playing with them since I was like 7 or 8, so part of the chemistry is we know what our strengths are and how to use them. Like Mia is a really good feeder so she makes us look really good and sets up our offense."

Beilhart led Berks with 57 assists in 2021 and is looking to continue to be the focal point of the Mifflin offense.

"Yeah, I feel pretty much at home behind the net," Beilhart said. "So when I'm back there, I just feel like, 'I got this.' I can see everyone on the field and I'm able to pass to players that couldn't get open. And yeah, I would say that's my specialty."

In addition to the core of Stanislawcyzk, Enriquez and Beilhart, seniors Amy Tinsman, Brook Mock and Faye Dormond also have been involved in offseason planning and will look to lead.

"These six girls have been absolutely incredible," Allen said. "Not just on the field but off the field, they're really nice girls who are fun and all support each other. And as far as how we prepared for the season, I've really taken strides with my senior leadership team. We've had meetings about what direction they want things to go in, what they want to keep and what they want to change. So they all have a lot of say, and I really pride myself in trying to teach leadership skills with the seniors."

In a league with other powerhouses like Twin Valley and Wilson, the Mustangs will need all hands on deck to be successful and push for a county title. Although the competition may be tough, the Mifflin seniors are not shying away from the challenge.

"I think we could definitely make it as far as last year and hopefully farther," Beilhart said. " I feel like the practices we've had before the season were really good practices. We really pushed each other as a team, and we're really just focused to play as a team. So I feel like doing that and getting everyone back will push us even further to what we did last year."