With roster loaded with underclassmen, Bethel Park girls lacrosse looks to learn, grow

By: Ray Fisher
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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It’s been tough sledding for the Bethel Park girls lacrosse team.

“We graduated about 75% of our varsity team last year, so this is a major rebuilding year for us,” coach Becky Luzier said. “The good news is we return some great now-upperclassmen and we have an abundance of freshmen who are working hard to help contribute sooner rather than later.

“We have spent the last four years at the top of this league with the 2022 class being a major reason for that. Five girls went on to play college sports, and we had two All-Americans in that class.”

There are 31 athletes in the girls lacrosse program this season. A staggering 20 are freshmen and four are sophomores.

Senior leadership is provided by attackers Meghan Krapp, Amanda Lincoln and Maya Shah, goalie Ashleigh Manns and midfielders/defenders Carley O’Mara and Corrine Hewes.

Averie Moul, a midfielder/defender, is the lone junior in the program.

“Starting off the season was a little difficult since we graduated most of our starters,” Krapp said. “Since we became a predominantly younger team, seeing as 20 freshmen came up to play this year, we had a lot of rebuilding to do. However, as the season continues, I can see how much we are improving every day. We have become a unit, and we now thrive off working together.

“We have been working hard to maintain a spot in the playoffs this year. Our first few games were a difficult start, but now, we found our groove and how to work together to achieve our goals. I believe if we keep fighting together towards making it to the playoffs, we will definitely do it.”

O’Mara agrees with her co-captain that a playoff berth is hopefully on the horizon for the Black Hawks.

“We started off the season with a few more losses than we would have liked, but our team is young and we are hoping to keep only getting stronger as a team,” O’Mara said. “I expect us to make the playoffs and keep the tradition that Bethel Park has built with playing that far into the season.”

O’Mara, Krapp and Moul are serving as team captains in 2023.

“It’s a new experience to be so young and inexperienced,” Luzier said, “but my three captains are excellent leaders. They have been aiding the staff in making this year a mix of focused growth and acceptance of the things we can’t control right now.”

Krapp has been playing lacrosse for 10 years and has mixed emotions for her senior season.

“I am so glad that I get to play my last season as a captain of the team, especially being a co-captain with Carley and Averie,” she said. “It’s sort of bittersweet for us to spend this last year playing together as co-captains after almost 10 years of playing together, but I would not want to do it with anyone else.

“I hope that by the time the season is over, I will have made a positive impact on my younger teammates and am hopefully setting a good example for some future Bethel Park girls lacrosse captains.”

Krapp is editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, the Hawk Eye. She also is a member of DECA and the yearbook club.

DECA defines its mission as preparing “emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.”

“I will be attending the DECA international conference in Orlando with some other Bethel Park students,” Krapp said. “My friend Merris (Gable) and I co-founded a nonprofit charity organization that we will be competing with there.”

O’Mara is a three-sport athlete at Bethel Park. She also participated on the girls golf team and as a 5-foot-10 forward on the girls basketball team.

“My (lacrosse) season is going pretty well,” she said. “I am happy with my improvement from last season and can’t wait to see my game grow in the future.”

O’Mara, Krapp, Lincoln and Moul are the only returning starters on this year’s team, which was 1-4 in section play and 1-5 overall in mid-April.

“Our starting lineup is pretty fluid with so much young talent,” Luzier said, “but we also returned goalie Ashleigh Manns and midfielder Corrine Hewes, who were major contributors last year. The rest of our starters are all freshmen and that makeup changes game-to-game.”

The freshman class is represented by attackers Bryleigh Burke, Reese Mellinger, Claire McDonnell, Alexis LaFlam, Riley Woods and Reese Fontanesi; midfielders Jennifer Heh and Mallory Gramm; defenders Sophia Howrylak, Halie Minor, Kaylie Conway, Athena Clagett and Karley Kroll; and Caelyn Stewart (ATT/MF), Morgan Cook (MF/ATT), Kylie Denmark (MF/ATT), Sarah Neal (MF/ATT), Scotlyn Paxton (MF/D), Madison Cook (MF/D) and Ashley Stasik (MF/D).

Midfielder Kylie Kasievich, attackers Madelyn Banes and Hayley Wuenschell and goalie Ally Wolling are sophomores.

The Black Hawks’ regular season is scheduled to end May 9.

Tags: Bethel Park