Newark girls lacrosse beginning to see end of rainbow
NEWARK — Newark girls lacrosse made some noise the night it honored Addi Taylert, Morgan Woodruff and Emma Thum.
Newark’s 18-10 win against Westerville South Monday was the program’s first at home and second overall. (The team also won at Buckeye Valley in April.) Players celebrated by ringing the victory bell at White Field.
“That was huge, especially on their senior night,” sophomore midfielder Peyton Sherman said.
Newark has experienced growing pains since its start in 2022 under coach Katie Keefe, but her players kept coming back the last three seasons because they believe more nights like Monday are ahead.
“It shows a lot of hope,” Sherman said. “We come into practice every day and sometimes there is a little bit of doubt. It gave us some motivation, and it’s definitely been nice to win.”
Newark's win on Monday was followed by a 17-2 loss to visiting Granville (5-11). Granville, under new coach Haleigh McPhillips, has been hit hard by graduation and the injury bug.
Standout senior Bella Rockwell was among those sitting out Thursday.
“During practice, we have really worked on our individual positions, and we have definitely gotten better working as a team,” sophomore Ellie Brower said. “A big thing is really helping the JV team grow and making sure they are getting enough time to really fill in our spots.”
The Blue Aces have won three of their last four games, including the victory against Newark and Tuesday's 10-8 win at Hilliard Darby on Tuesday. It has been a trial by fire for several new to the varsity lineup playing against a schedule that still features many of the perennial powers in central Ohio.
The Blue Aces' ambition, evidenced by their willingness to go toe to toe with some of the state’s best teams, is something Newark aspires to.
The Wildcats know success is going to take time, but they have already received high marks for their improvement from opposing coaches and players, scoring six goals or more six times this season after doing it just a few times over the previous two seasons.
“Two wins might not be much, but our program is going to definitely continue to grow," junior midfielder Madi Johnson said. "We will get more wins.”
Nine players scored for Granville on Thursday. Junior Gwyn Smith led the way with four, senior Olivia Graves added three, twin sister Gabrielle Graves and freshman Mabel Messner two apiece and seniors Zoe Gravitt and Lucy Walters, juniors Brecken Kennedy and Edi Fisher and Brower one each.
The sideline erupted when Walters slipped into the center of the defense, caught a lob pass from behind the net from Gravitt and quickly shot it into the cage.
“We have had some really hard games, but with every hard game that we’ve had, we learn from our mistakes,” Walters said. “We really hunker down in practice, and then we do it on the field.”
Junior Alyvea Roseberry and sophomore Emily Tracey scored for Newark on Thursday.
Roseberry, who is a co-captain with Taylert and Johnson, has been the all-around standout in the midfield. Junior Ava Layne has helped provide scoring punch in the attack, and junior volleyball standout Ruth Anderson has added to the defense headed by Woodruff in front of junior goalkeeper Gabrielle Greene.
“Watching our program move forward from a club to an actual varsity sport, just in the last year it’s crazy to see the growth that we’ve had,” Johnson said. “We are getting to the same level now as some of these other schools.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Newark girls lacrosse beginning to see end of rainbow
