Seniors Take Center Stage as GV Girls Win 24-5

Yes, the game was important. Even at this time of year, with the regular season coming to a close, every team wants to get as many wins as they can before either moving on to postseason play or collecting the uniforms for one last time.

But Wednesday evening at Great Valley High School,  a celebration of achievements and dedication was the main focus of the girls lacrosse squad, who had no problem vanquishing Sun Valley by a 24-5 final.

The biggest challenge was actually getting the game started. Scheduled for Tuesday night, it was postponed until Wednesday because a portion of the artificial turf on the football field came loose and was deemed not suited for play.

While there was disappointment because Senior Night activites would have to wait another day, it didn't show on Wednesday, when head coach Joe Tornetta basically turned things over to the 12th-graders. And the evening was special for the veteran coach in another way—the number of his daughter, Mallory, was retired during post-game ceremonies.

"A special day, all around," he said afterward. "This was a celebration of our seniors. Our regular starters only played five to 10 minutes the second half, and we were glad to get the seniors a lot of time in appreciation for what they have done for this program."

Among the eight seniors, three—Amanda Germer, Tara Landis and Christiana Heston—are first-year players. The remaining seniors are Rachel Kalick, Caroline Dodds, Heather Blackwell and Laura Bigelow.

McBride's final regular season home game will be one she remembers, as she scored seven goals. She got the hat trick at 8:22 of the first half when she scored her third goal to give the Pats a 6-3 lead. Four minutes later, fellow senior Kalick reached the same plateau when she made it 8-3 with goal number three.

After Jordan Hopkins of Sun Valley cut the GV lead in half, McBride threw in goals number four and five in a matter of 35 seconds, and the Pats had a 10-4 halftime advantage.

"They are a wonderful group," Tornetta said of his senior class. "They have come out every day for four years and worked hard. It's going to be a sad day at our end-of-the-year banquet."

Tornetta used his starters for the beginning of the second half, mainly because "we have a game tomorrow [at Kennett], and we lost practice today due to the postponement. Then we started subbing freely with the other seniors and even some freshman."

The Patriots (14-1) never lost their grip on the game. A third hat trick came off the stick of junior Ali Karwoski as she netted goals at 18:15, 16:01 and 7:58, the last one pushing the Great Valley lead to 22-4. McBride got her sixth and seventh goals at 15:04 and 13:17 while Kalick bounced home her fourth at 9:41.

Sun Valley remained scoreless in the half until 2.2 seconds were left to play as Hopkins's second goal of the day resulted in the 24-5 final and the Senior Evening festivities began.

But before that came the number retirement ceremony for Mallory Tornetta, who's number 9 will never be worn by another Patriots girls lacrosse player. She is the school's all-time leading scorer, accumulating 486 goals and 227 assists through her senior year in 2005 and a long list of honors, including being named a two-time All-American. A graduate of Rutgers University, she's a graduate assistant lacrosse coach at LaSalle this year.

With Downingtown East, who handed Great Valley its lone loss of the season, winning the Ches-Mont League on Tuesday night, attention now turns to the District 1 playoffs which begin on Tuesday.

"It will be an interesting seeding meeting on Sunday, that's for sure," Tornetta chuckled. "The Central League has a log jam at the top, so that has to be sorted out. Downingtown East should set the field, so we'll see what kind of respect our league gets."