Finals Preview: Cross-state Powers Collide
June 7, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
For the first time in the brief history of MHSAA girls lacrosse, a top team from the Grand Rapids area will face a top team from suburban Detroit in both Finals, scheduled for Saturday at Rockford High School.
And those Grand Rapids-area contenders also are the favorites, both ranked No. 1 in their respective divisions at the end of the regular season.
Defending Division 2 champion East Grand Rapids faces Livonia Ladywood in the day's first game at 2 p.m., followed by the host Rams taking on Bloomfield Hills United for the Division 1 title at 4:30. Click for more information including all results from this season's tournament. Both finals also will be streamed live on MHSAA.tv and broadcast on MHSAANetwork.com, and shown next week on Comcast.
Here's a brief look at the four teams vying for championships (player statistics do not include Semifinals):
Division 1
BLOOMFIELD HILLS UNITED
Record/rank: 19-5, No. 4 at end of regular season
League finish: First in Oakland Activities Association Red
Coach: Andy Reed, third season (40-23-1)
Championship history: Has not played in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 12-11 and 11-10 (Regional Quarterfinal) over No. 9 Birmingham United, 16-6 over No. 10 Grosse Pointe South, 13-11 and 14-6 (Regional Final) over No. 7 Troy, 8-7 over No. 5 Birmingham Marian in Regional Semifinal, 10-9 over No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer in Semifinal.
Players to watch: Margaret Metzger, sr. M (81 goals, 32 assists); Maria D’Angelo, jr. A (61 goals, 21 assists); Emma Mucci, jr. M (28 goals, 24 assists); Christina Arens, jr. A (24 goals, 19 assists); Maddie Monahan, sr. M (29 goals, 14 assists).
Outlook: Bloomfield Hills has more than doubled its wins (nine) from Reed’s first season and won 14 straight this spring. The Blackhawks also have survived a run of four straight ranked opponents during the postseason, with three one-goal wins during the advance. Metzger added five more goals in the Semifinal win, and her 86 total puts her 12th in the MHSAA record book for one season.
ROCKFORD
Record/rank: 20-5, No. 1 at end of regular season
League finish: Second in O-K Conference Tier 1
Coach: Mike Emery, sixth season (102-28-5)
Championship history: Division 1 champion 2010.
Best wins: 12-6 over No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer, 7-4 over No. 5 Birmingham Marian, 9-5 and 15-9 (Semifinal) over No. 2 Hartland, 9-4 over No. 8 Brighton, 17-16 (OT) over Division 2 No. 2 Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Players to watch: Meghan Datema, jr. M (44 goals 14 assists); Erika Neumen, sr. M (68 goals, 27 assists); Alex VanderMolen, fr. A/M (51 goals, seven assists).
Outlook: A win over Bloomfield Hills United would give the Rams victories over all four of the other top-five teams in Division 1 at the end of the regular season. Rockford also beat some of the best in Division 2, splitting with second-ranked Grand Rapids Catholic Central, sweeping two games against No. 3 Caledonia and taking a win from No. 4 Okemos (however, two losses came against Division 2 No. 1 East Grand Rapids). Three more players in addition to those listed above have scored at least 27 goals so far this season.
Division 2
EAST GRAND RAPIDS
Record/rank: 21-2, No. 1 at end of regular season
League finish: First in O-K Conference Tier 1
Coach: Rich Axtell, fourth season (77-14)
Championship history: Division 2 champion 2012.
Best wins: 6-2 and 13-5 (Semifinal) over No. 4 Okemos, 12-8, 17-8 and 14-13 (Regional Final) over No. 2 Grand Rapids Catholic Central, 10-5, 15-11 and 13-11 (Regional Semifinal) over No. 3 Caledonia, 14-9 and 13-5 over Division 1 No. 1 Rockford, 12-11 over Division 1 No. 2 Hartland.
Players to watch: Claire Ludlow, sr. A (56 goals, 16 assists); Liza Elder, soph. A (54 goals, 21 assists); Katherine Golladay, soph. M (40 goals, 26 assists).
Outlook: It’s tough to argue against East Grand Rapids as the state’s top team regardless of division given its first-place finish in the super-competitive O-K Tier 1 and a list of wins that also includes victories over Division 1 top-10 opponents Bloomfield Hills United, Brighton, Birmingham United and Ann Arbor Pioneer. Total, East Grand Rapids had seven players with at least 18 goals this season entering the Semifinal, making them an incredibly-tough defensive matchup.
LIVONIA LADYWOOD
Record/rank: 15-1, No. 8 at end of regular season
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic High School League Division II
Coach: Kris Sanders, fourth season (48-19-1)
Championship history: Has not played in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 15-11 over No. 9 Flint Powers Catholic, 12-8 over No. 5 Farmington Hills Mercy in Regional Final, 11-10 over No. 10 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in Semifinal.
Players to watch: Jaclyn Snyder, sr. AW (36 goals, five assists); Megan Leon, jr. A (40 goals, eight assists); Jessica Snyder, jr. A (49 goals, 20 assists).
Outlook: Ladywood made its way into the Division 2 computer rankings’ top 10 early this season and held strong, with its only loss to Division 1 No. 5 Birmingham Marian in the regular-season finale. Senior Christina Riga and junior Rachel Donabedian also have scored at least 30 goals apiece this season, and the team scored fewer than 11 only in that lone loss.
PHOTO: East Grand Rapids' Claire Ludlow looks for an opening in front of the net during her team's Division 2 championship victory last season.
Playing with Purpose
May 18, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Lauren Hooker gets up for every lacrosse game. She and her teammates will dress the same for school, send each other pump-up messages throughout the day and carry that momentum into the locker room and onto the field.
But she admits she plays her best against her toughest opponents.
“It’s playing to their level. Playing someone good forces you to step up and play the best,” Hooker said. “It brings the best out of you. I don’t enjoy playing some of the really easy teams as much.”
The East Grand Rapids senior loves a challenge. And she’s helping the Pioneers blaze through a few of them in this, her final high school season, before joining the Marquette University program this fall.
East Grand Rapids has started this season 20-0. The Pioneers are ranked No. 1 both in Division 2 and regardless of division based on the computer rankings supplied by LaxPower.com. And they are doing so with only two seniors – although Hooker, who received a Second Half High 5 this week, gives the team a star at the top that few teams in Michigan can counter.
Playing attack, she’s scored 101 goals -- already third-most for a single season in the MHSAA record book, and more than 25 percent of her team's total. Add in her 33 assists, and her 134 total points are fifth in MHSAA history for one season.
And indeed, she’s been at her best against the best. Hooker had three goals and three assists in an 11-9 win last week over No. 2-ranked Grand Rapids Catholic Central. She scored seven goals in each of two games against Division 1 No. 5 Rockford, and had nine goals in Monday’s 17-8 win over Division 1 No. 2 Hartland.
“She’s what I’d call sneaky quick. Basically, she doesn’t take a big wind-up in her shot; it looks like she’s cradling, looking to pass. And then she just puts it past the goalie,” Pioneers coach Rich Axtell said. “Some players take a different approach, but she’s deceptive. She’s got really good stick control. When she’s in close, she can make you feel pretty slow by comparison.”
Hooker has been on a quest after being part of teams that have lost either in the first or second rounds of Regionals her first three seasons. The last two, the Pioneers ended with defeats by the eventual MHSAA champions. A year ago, they lost 14-13 in double overtime to eventual Finals winner Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
But there’s no question in Axtell's mind that Hooker has brought her game up a level this spring. That effort began in September, when she hit the weight room for training that continued all winter.
Hooker said she started those sessions in part to bring the team together early, especially with so many young players joining the program. Axtell said he thinks part of that drive also came with getting the scholarship to Marquette, which will begin as an NCAA program in 2013.
“She’s really playing with a lot more purpose,” Axtell said.
Hooker first was a golfer, before quitting that sport until taking it up again as a freshman in high school. In the fall, she was the low scorer on the Pioneers golf team that finished eighth at the Division 3 Final, and she missed the individual top 10 by only two strokes.
But lacrosse has been her number one since she first picked up the game during third and fourth grades. “A huge tomboy,” Hooker learned the game from a boy who lived in her neighborhood. After attending a couple of boys clinics, her mom found a girls team for her in the Forest Hills area.
Her mom and group of others then organized an East Grand Rapids youth team that Hooker joined for a few years before jumping up to the Pioneers’ varsity lineup as a freshman.
This offseason she accepted the challenge to set a championship standard. She hopes to leave high school next month having helped the Pioneers win their first MHSAA lacrosse title – with the groundwork for more to come as she moves on.
“I have a lot of hope for the program to continue to do so well,” Hooker said. “Hopefully when I’m gone, people will carry on doing so well.”
Click to read more about Hooker's future plans and lacrosse influences.
PHOTOS: East Grand Rapids' Lauren Hooker (14) has scored 101 goals this season (Photos courtesy of East Grand Rapids lacrosse.).