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The Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team opened the season with a convincing 21-1 road win over Blacksburg last Monday.
Halina Homiak and McKenzie Hines each scored four goals for the Wildcats, with Homiak also notching four assists and Hines tallying three helpers. Emily Humphreys made five saves in goal, while Lola Mulitalo notched four ground balls and three caused turnovers and Jaden McCoy had three takeaways.
With Hines on the draw circle, RC also dominated the midfield. Maddie Dahl and Nadia Gaydos each secured five draw controls to lead the way.
“We had a full team effort on both offense and defense,” said fifth-year RC head coach Susan Nye.
RC’s first two scheduled home contests were postponed to later in the season. The original opener against Salem – moved from March 13 due to the wet and rainy snow that fell the day before – will now be played on May 3. The Wildcats’ home game against E.C. Glass was also pushed back from last Thursday to May 16.
Despite the false starts with the schedule, expectations are high for RC in 2023. The Wildcats finished 16-2 overall in 2022, winning their second consecutive Region 4D title and making their second straight trip to the Class 4 state semifinals. Western Albemarle, which dealt RC a heartbreaking 12-11 defeat in last year’s final four game in Lexington and beat the Wildcats 17-7 in the state semifinals in Crozet in 2021, is slated to visit RC this evening.
The Wildcats graduated six seniors, including three first team all-state selections in Susanne Mayock-Bradley, Kendall Nye and Maddy Sensabaugh. Nye is now playing Division I lacrosse for Liberty University. But RC still returns a strong contingent, including second team all-state honorees McKenzie Hines and Libba Erskine.
Rachel Hines is expected to return to her goalkeeping spot this week, coming back from a shoulder injury suffered during basketball season, and McCoy and Lexie Polly are back to anchor the defense. Dahl returns in the midfield, and a strong contingent of attackers – including Homiak, Nala Shearer, Emma Bates and Lily Youngman – will also look to build on last year’s experience.
The seven newcomers on the RC roster are Ciara Staton, Hallie Darmante, McKenzie Polson and Gaydos on defense, Mulitalo in the midfield, Josie Caldwell – who scored twice against Blacksburg – on attack and Humphreys in goal.
The ’Cats certainly have lofty expectations for the new season, though given how close RC has been to the pinnacle in recent years, those hopes seem attainable.
“The Wildcat goal is always to a win a [Class 4] state championship,” Coach Nye said. “The players are getting better every day with our lax IQ. It is going to be a fun season.”
RC was scheduled to travel to Monticello last night. Tonight’s home action against Western Albemarle begins with the junior varsity game at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity game scheduled to follow at 7:15. Spring break will be next week, and the Wildcats aren’t scheduled to play again until Thursday, April 20 when they visit Jefferson Forest, starting with JV action at 5:30 p.m.
