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Davis Journal

Girls lacrosse teams showing up stronger in numbers and in talent

Mar 23, 2023 12:16PM ● By Catherine Garrett

Viewmont’s Cece Walton (33) drives against Clearfield’s Emilie Merrill (15). The back-and-forth match ended with the Falcons flying over the Vikings 7 - 6. Photo by Roger V. Tuttle

Davis

Four juniors return for Davis High’s team and will be key in the Darts’ success this season, according to Head Coach Makenzie Hekking. Midfielders Mackenzie Coleman and Olivia Lifferth, attacker Kaydence Johnson and defender Tallulah Raser along with freshman newcomer KC Gardiner lead a group that team returns after a 2022 campaign that was cut short in the 6A playoffs with a first-ever loss to Syracuse.

“The intent for every season is to always improve and do better than the last year, but there is a hunger to get it again after a really good season,” said Hekking.

The focus for Davis this off-season turned to toughness from a physical and mental standpoint. “Some referees let more physicality happen in the postseason last year and we struggled to adapt to that,” Hekking said. “We want our girls to be more gritty and have an underdog mentality so if it doesn’t suck, we aren’t doing it. We’re going to constantly be trying to change things up when they start to get comfortable.”

Hekking also said an emphasis on extra work in strength and conditioning, fundamentals and stick skills will also be key moving forward for the Darts program. “Competition is getting more and more tough as there is a lot of growth and progress in the sport happening around us,” she said. “I’ve had to tell our girls that talent isn’t enough anymore and we don’t have that advantage anymore.”

Also on the DHS squad this year are seniors Ruby Jane Hollingsworth and Emma Williams; juniors Kennedy Barker, Nina Groth, Ellie Henderson, Ida Kanstrup, Brooklyn McKenzie, Andrea Nichols, Kerri Norton, Elisabeth Reid, Gracie Rose, Hibiki Usui, Brinlee Wilding and Ally Wintle; sophomores Sommer Blaser, Avery Bray, Lucy Bybee, Jacey Compton, Esther Facer, Alyssa Hall, Katei Harman, Bridget Hartwell, Ellie Ivie, Sophie Karras, Lily Mickalson, Sydney Plummer, Jayden Tatton and Julie Weger; and freshmen Katie Harman, Miley Medell and Elizabeth Neeley.

Hekking is being assisted on the coaching staff by Jon Bunch, Devon Williams, Wayne Rose and DHS alum Ava Bair.

The Darts began the season March 9 with a game against No. 4 Lone Peak which didn’t exactly start as planned, even before taking the field. “It wasn’t going to be an easy game anyways, but we had bus issues which ended up making us late to the game so we didn’t get a full warm-up,” Hekking said. Despite a 19-6 loss, Hekking noted that “bright spots” in the game were that half of the team’s goals were assisted and that her girls worked hard and “showed heart.” “That tells me that this year’s squad is going to play more as a team,” she said. “It was good to see the level of play our girls need to be at to be competitive for state and I hope that we take the lessons from this game to heart and play more physically and disciplined.”

Coleman, Raser and Rose all scored two goals each to lead the Davis offense.

Against Fremont March 14, the Darts pulled out a 15-14 win, coming back from a two-goal deficit at halftime to get their first win of the season.


“We played really well,” Hekking said. “We found ourselves down and had to make some adjustments at defense, but once we started winning the draw and getting shots on cage we were able to equalize the score.”

Raser “ended up going off for us in the second half,” scoring five unassisted goals to put Davis up by five. “Credit to Fremont as they fought back and got some quick goals off of the draw, but we were able to hold on for the one-goal win,” Hekking said. “Mackenzie [Coleman] played amazing for us taking the draw and contributing to us winning that battle with 17 draw controls for the team with Olivia [Lifferth] winning seven of those draw controls individually. It was also a team affair as we had eight different players score and nine players contribute points for the team win.”

Facer’s three goals were tops for the Darts while Johnson (two goals), Coleman (one goal), Lifferth (one goal), Norton (one goal), Rose (one goal), Wilding (one goal) and Williams (one assist) were also part of the offense.

Against Farmington March 16, Davis lost 11-7.

“It was a rough game,” said Hekking. “The game was super physical and at times outright dirty, so much so that the refs paused the game to talk with both coaches to let them know it was getting out of hand and cards were going to start being issued. Despite this, the physical play continued and only one yellow card ended up being assessed to Farmington for a cross check that ended up taking out one of our star players with a concussion. Ultimately, we had three girls that had to come out of the game – two of which are out with concussions now.”

Johnson led the Darts with three goals with Coleman adding a goal and an assist and Facer, Lifferth and Rose also scoring goals.

“This loss stings and was hard on the girls, but I hope that we can take the lessons learned during this game and rebound from it,” Hekking said. “We have to play more as a team and we’ll be focusing more on assisted goals moving forward.” 

Davis is also scheduled to get right into Region 1 play with home-and-away games against Layton, Clearfield, Syracuse, Roy, Weber, Fremont and Farmington while also facing Skyridge May 6.

The Darts are now 1-2 this season.



Farmington

Senior Alexa Stephens and sophomore Hailey Larsen return to lead Farmington’s offense along with newcomer Alexandra MacAulay, a sophomore. Defensively, the Phoenix squad – under new Head Coach Chris MacAualay – will be anchored by sophomore Kate Carter, freshman Molli Bell, seniors London Tholl and Karly Stephens, Alexa’s twin, and sophomore goalie Elle Erickson.

“Our seniors [which also includes Maleha Ballard, Ryann Franich, Brookyln Hintze, Mikayla Jackson and Riley Sant] are a big part of our team,” said MacAualay. “We also have 16 sophomores between our varsity and JV squads and that will be important for continued development within our program.”

MacAualay, who is from northern Virginia, grew up playing lacrosse and, after his high school career, went on to play collegiately at Air Force. His military service brought him to Hill Air Force Base in 2018 and, upon retirement three years ago, he and his family – including his wife, who retired from the military in 2018 – enjoyed Utah so much that they decided to stick around.

Last year, his daughter Alexandra, who attends St. Joseph’s, played lacrosse for Weber High and associated with three FHS players through club lacrosse. MacAualay was made aware of the opening for a Farmington girls lacrosse coach and a conversation with his daughter ensued. “I made sure Alexandra was good with it if I coached her and I made it clear to her that she was probably going to have to work harder than most because I couldn’t show her any favoritism or have nepotism going on,” MacAualay said. “She’s actually loved it.”

MacAualay loves the physicality, fast-paced and team-natured sport that lacrosse is as well as the life lessons you can learn by playing it.

“I hope these girls get a similar experience as I did from playing the game like having fun, dealing with loss and failure and learning and growing from that, and taking responsibility for yourself,” he said. “Lacrosse is a great laboratory to learn some great life skills.”

He hopes to additionally help his players be successful on the field and advance further in the playoffs as the program continually builds and improves.

Also on the FHS squad are juniors Edi Bayles, Brooklyn Bement, Georgia Kearns and Ruby Roche; sophomores Lauren Enright and Clara Russon; and freshmen Lydia Judd and Kassie Moffat.

MacAulay is being assisted this season by Lula Moore and Grace Kuntzler.

In its first game this season against Syracuse March 14, the Phoenix team won 12-11 behind Alexa Stephens four goals and three from Ally MacAulay. Also contributing offensively were Larsen (two goals, one assist), Bayles (one goal) Jackson (one goal) and Sant (one goal) with Erickson recording seven saves in the win.

“The team is starting to come together,” MacAulay said. 

Against Davis March 16, Farmington won 11-7 behind goals from MacAulay (three), Larsen (two), Roche (two), Sant (two), Jackson (one) and Moffatt (one) with Moffatt also recording an assist.

“The game went great,” MacAulay said. “Ally [MacAulay] had three goals, Hailey [Larsen] was dominant at the draw circle, and the player of the game was our goalie, Elle [Erickson], who had 13 saves and a sixty-five save percentage.”

The Phoenix squad is also scheduled to face Bountiful and Park City along with Region 1 opponents Roy, Weber, Clearfield, Fremont, Layton, Syracuse and Davis this season.



Bountiful

Third-year Head Coach Olivia Cope returns seniors Violet Holley, a midfielder, and defender Naomi Brice and junior attacker Megan Youngberg to a building program who finished in the top 15 in 5A last season.

Freshmen Layla Blanchard and Claire will also be looked to for contribution to the varsity squad and continued development.

The Redhawks team have been focusing on conditioning as well as stickwork fundamentals while also trying to add more players to their group.

“My goal each year is to have every player who doesn’t graduate come back and play next year so we can pick up where we left off,” Cope said. 

Also on the BHS squad this season are seniors Riley Coats, Hannah Lyman, Chloe Manning, Abby Mortensen, Beth Rose, Iris Soriano, Abby Taylor, Hannah Thacker and Kate Weaver; juniors Tori Angelbuer, , Nicole Bowen, Eli Buys, Christina Eyring, Emma Jenkins, Kennedy Johnson, Noelle Lamoureux, Gaby Leavitt, Veronica Loveless, Morgan Madsen, Emma May, Leah Moon, Ava Vorwaller, Madi Wagstaff and Daisy Williams; sophomores Brooklyn Bronson, Kate Collins, Olivia Fotjek, Ella Gillian and Sadie Young; and freshmen Colby Anthon, Gabby Baker, Ashlyn Dwyre, Sierra Gehring, Jorja Hone, Claire Jensen, Jacy Johnson, Emme Lamoreux, Kristen Seljaas, Halle Savage and Ayden Simmonds.

Cope is being assisted by Cassidy Stratton, Jon Lamoureux and Grace Nixon.

Bountiful is scheduled to begin play against Weber, Farmington, Copper Hills, Waterford and Salem Hills before Region 5 home-and-away games against Box Elder, Bonneville, Provo, Woods Cross, Viewmont and Northridge.



Viewmont

Senior midfielder Eliza Runolfson and her sister Gretel, who is a sophomore defender, along with senior midfielder Keely Banks bring experience back to a Vikings squad that welcomes in new Head Coach Lauren Pescetti this season.

Pescetti also noted the addition of freshman midfielder Cece Walton which will help Viewmont’s offense.

The new coach began playing lacrosse when she was 11 in New York, and literally never set the stick aside. 

“Once I picked up the stick it was an immediate love for the sport,” she said.

After playing throughout middle school and high school, Pescetti went on to be an NJCAA First-Team All-American and a two-time First Team All-Region player at SUNY Herkimer College, finishing the 2010 season ranked ninth in the nation in scoring.

She was drawn to coaching because of the tremendous influence her coaches had on her. “I also think that it is important to have strong female representation in our sports who have a passion for what they do.”

This past fall, Pescetti coached a club team who won 15 of their 17 games and it thrilled her to watch her players increase in confidence as they worked hard to develop in their lacrosse fundamentals and abilities. 

“I’m excited for coming in this season at Viewmont,” she said. “We have girls playing that range from nine years of experience to this was their first time ever seeing a lacrosse field. I get the best of both worlds coaching here, seeing new players learn the game from the ground up and seeing my more advanced players get to tackle harder skills.”

Pescetti said an important aspect to her coaching is creating an environment that encourages development on and off the field. “I always tell my players that I first care about them as young ladies becoming adults, then secondly as lacrosse players,” she said. “I think that just instilling that accomplishing hard tasks takes hard work and dedication not only applies to lacrosse but to life overall. I want to see each player improve personally on their specific lacrosse skills no matter what level they fall under, to create a team that has friendships that will last years for the girls and to be able to pass on my knowledge to the next generation of potential coaches.”

Also on the VHS team this year are seniors Kali Jones, Rachel Lee and Alexis Silva; juniors Lauren Ames, Sarah Bell, Avery Drake, Haley Erekson, Brittley Gines, Lexi Lee, Paige Mair and Elsie Tomlinson; sophomores Riley Atwood, Caitlin Phelps, Emma Walker, Brienna Wallis and Olivia Zitzmann; and freshmen Maddie Gaskill and Monica Larsen.

Pescetti is being assisted by Tara Riley on the coaching staff this season.

So far this year, the Vikings defeated Layton 13-1 March 9 with Banks scoring six goals and Walton adding three. Other offense came from Tomlinson (two goals), Eliza Runolfson (one), Erekson (one) and Drake (one) while Pescetti noted that her player of the game was goalie Emma Walker.

“The girls surpassed all of my expectations for our season opener,” Pescetti said. “We were able to get every one of our players, first timers included, a great amount of playing time. The girls really showed me that we’re ready to move forward onto new aspects in our practices. I couldn’t have asked them for anything more.”

Against Roy March 10, Viewmont won 9-3 – in a lightning-delayed matchup – behind five goals from Walton and two each from Banks and Eliza Runolfson with an assist from Jones.

“It was a great game,” Pescetti said. “The girls showed up ready to work. Once it was safe to start the game, we played in a cold, windy downpour. My girls remained mentally and physical tough throughout the elements and delay and pulled out a great second win to the season.”

The Vikings also played Clearfield March 17 and lost 7-6. Viewmont was up 5-4 at the half but managed just one second-half goal.

“It was a tough loss,” Pescetti said.

Banks and Walton scored two goals each while Erekson and Runolfson added the two others.

The Vikings are also scheduled to play Green Canyon and Logan before starting Region 5 play with home-and-away games against Bonneville, Northridge, Box Elder, Bountiful and Woods Cross.



Woods Cross

The defending Region 5 champions return captains Sadie Allred, Ella Mathews and Maggie Preece and Head Coach Sierra Harris expects their leadership to be key to the success of the team this season. 

“Their leadership positive impacts the team and keeps them motivated,” Harris said, noting that the squad will also lean on the play of Skylar Midgley and Dani Brey on the field.

Harris was that conditioning was the focus in getting the Wildcats ready for the season. “We wanted to make sure our team is ready to run and move the ball without getting too tired,” she said. 

Also on the WXHS team this year are JV captains Mersadie Carroll, Olivia Mathews and Ruby Sonntag along with Shelby Allen, Brooklyn Bradley, Sophia Burden, Brianna Coleman, Sophie Davis, Greta Enkrodt, Olivia Eyring, Lily Freebairn, Alexa Gardner, Mary Gilbert, Alyssa Graham, Julia Haberstroh, Ella Holland, Megan Madsen, Ashley Miller, Quinlan Nevin, Lucy Phillips, Emmy Richards, Riley Rupp, Eliza Sargent, Rachel Sims, Sofi Smith, Kate Squire, Katie Stewart, Ella Tyson, Becca Warner and Ada Wilson. 

“I just want to see everyone grow as a unit. We’ve got a great group of girls this year,” Harris said. “I really want them to create an environment where everyone is welcome to make mistakes and learn from them. I’m really excited to see everyone succeed.”

Harris is being assisted by Gracie Preece on the coaching staff this season. 

Woods Cross began the season March 14 with a 9-8 loss to Sky View. Preece scored three goals while Mathews had two and Allred, Coleman and Holland each added a goal.

Against East, the Wildcats earned its first win behind six goals and an assist from Matthews. Also contributing offensively were Holland (four goals), Preece (four goals), Midgley (three goals), Sargent (three goals), Eyring (two goals, one assist), Allred (one goal), Brey (one goal), Carroll (one goal), Coleman (one goal) and Richards (one goal).

Woods Cross is also scheduled to face Riverton, Highland, Springville and Skyline this season as well as Region 5 play against Northridge, Box Elder, Bountiful, Bonneville and Viewmont.