INTER-AC NOTEBOOK 4/28
Penn Charter’s Mattice a valued veteran; Episcopal Academy continues its special season; bounce-back wins for Agnes Irwin; another big-game performance from GA’s Wanner; Notre Dame Academy with three, four-goal scorers.
(Photos/ Grayson Rupp, Zamani Feelings & James Quinn)
By: Marc Narducci
Penn Charter’s Kenighan Mattice has been a true leader for the young but talented Quakers
Kenighan Mattice has a special role this season for Penn Charter as the Quakers’ lone senior starter.
It’s a young team, but one that has been not been rebuilding. Penn Charter began the week 13-6 overall and 4-3 in the Inter-Ac.
Still even young teams could use veteran help and that been Mattice has provided on attack and in the midfield.
More than anything it’s the leadership that she has provided which has greatly benefited the Quakers.
“She is awesome,” Penn Charter coach Colleen Kelly said of Mattice. “She is helping lead on both ends of the field.”
Her intelligence has been a major benefit to her young teammates.
“She's someone who has just a great lax IQ, she can help in every area,” Kelly said. “We only have six seniors, and we have 24 freshmen so she’s the one that they’re looking at a lot of time and seeing what she is doing and how she is reacting to things.”
On such a youthful team, does Mattice feel like sort of an old-timer at times?
“Yes,” she said laughing. “It is a lot of pressure, but I have my team around me, and we all work really well together and work as a unit,” she said.
Mattice will be continuing her education and lacrosse career at Harvard.
“The school has amazing academics, amazing athletics and going there sets you up so well for the future,” said Mattice, who said she was leaning into majoring in economics.
Not surprisingly, Mattice has been playing the sport for more than a decade. She said her father played in high school and she has a brother who is a freshman at Malvern Prep who is also a lacrosse player.
Penn Charter Senior Kenighan Mattice (Photo by Zamani Feelings)
In addition to lacrosse, she also played field hockey. She said playing field hockey also benefitted her in lacrosse.
“I think cross-training is great for any sports,” she said. “And being on a team that isn’t your main sport is just fun and a lot of field hockey girls also play lacrosse, so that creates a good team culture too.”
Even though this is her final season, Mattice will be following Penn Charter closely in the future, albeit from a distance.
“I am excited to see what the next few years bring them, and this team is getting better every single practice,” she said. “I can’t wait to see how much better we get in the next few years.”
And in a way, she would have contributed to the development of the young players, with her veteran guidance.
No Signs of Slowing Down for EA
Episcopal Academy continues its march to a special season. The Churchwomen beat a talented Penn Charter team, 14-1 and then earned a 13-7 win over Florida’s IMG Academy.
Against Penn Charter, senior Abby Schwartz had three caused turnovers and one ground ball. Senior Maura Irish (Notre Dame) led the scoring with four goals, while junior Sofia Gagliardi contributed a hat trick and one assist. Both Irish and Gagliardi also had two draw controls.
Leading in that department was junior Nora Bailer (Gettysburg) who had nine draw controls. Senior Grace Holland (Boston College) made three saves.
During the win over IMG Academy, Episcopal Academy led 10-2 at halftime.
“We jumped out early and that provided some cushion for when they went on a run in the second half,” EA coach Josie Tomaino said. “IMG is a very talented team, full of fast athletes, so it was very important for us to dictate tempo as much as possible. We did a good job of playing our game in the first half.”
Senior Quinn Whitaker (Boston College) had five goals, two assists, two draw controls and one ground ball. Gagliardi and senior Avery Le (Penn) each scored twice, and Bailer contributed 11 draw controls, with Holland making five saves and junior Fallon Crowther contributing two saves.
That improved Episcopal Academy’s record to 14-0 overall and 6-0 in the Inter-Ac. The Churchwomen were ranked No. 2 nationally in last week’s USA Lacrosse Magazine’s national Top 25 rankings.
Agnes Irwin Bounces Back
After a 10-3 loss to Episcopal Academy, Agnes Irwin bounced back with two impressive non-league wins, defeating Florida’s IMG Academy, 13-10 and Villa Marie Academy, 17-12.
Episcopal Academy Junior Nora Bailer led EA with 9 draw controls in game vs. Penn Charter. (Photo by Grayson Rupp)
Episcopal Academy vs. IMG (Photos by James Quinn)
Congratulations to EA head Coach Josie Tomaino on her 200th Win in game vs. IMG. (PSD photo by Lennie Malmgren)
“It was a challenging week in that we were coming off our loss to EA, so we challenged the team to step up their game and compete hard in both practices and our non-league competitions,” Agnes Irwin coach Lauren Wray said. “We did a nice job offensively bouncing back from a disappointing showing vs. EA.”
The fact that the wins came over quality non-league teams was a significant factor to Wray.
“Both IMG and Villa have strong teams that were a good test for us,” she said. “We are looking forward to jumping back into the second half of the league play next week against a talented Penn Charter team (on Tuesday).
In their first meeting, Agnes Irwin defeated Penn Charter, 7-6.
During the win over IMG Academy, senior Mairyn Dwyer (North Carolina) had four goals, one assist and one draw control. Classmates Caroline Chisholm (Boston College) and Catie Holmes (Maryland) each scored a hat trick, while senior Rowan Lawrence (Denver) added two goals and two assists.
Holmes scored her 100th career goal in the win over Villa Marie. She had a hat trick in the game. Dwyer led the way with four goals and three draw controls. Holmes added five draw controls.
Chisholm had two goals, one assist and six draw controls. Lawrence provided two goals, six assists and two ground balls. Sophomores Kelsey Young and Piper Rodgers each scored twice.
Agnes Irwin's Senior Catie Holmes scored her 100th goal in game vs. Villa Maria. (Photo/ EA Athletics)
Penn Charter Beats IMG
Penn Charter became the third Inter-Ac team to defeat a talented IMG Academy team last week with a 15-10 victory. IMG Academy also visited Episcopal Academy and Agnes Irwin as earlier indicated.
Penn Charter junior goalie Maeve Magarity (Boston College) made seven saves.
Mattice and junior Harbor Campbell (Loyola) each scored hat tricks, while junior Molly Dougherty (Michigan), junior Ana Buckley (Dartmouth) and freshman Sailor Campbell each scored twice.
Penn Charter vs. Episcopal Academy. (Photos by Grayson Rupp for PSD)
Freshman Makenna Myers scored a goal and had 11 draw controls. The other goal scorers were senior Eva Walter and sophomore Cate Wall, who also had an assist.
Notre Dame With Scoring Explosion
Emma Anthony (Rutgers) Erin Conroy and Keira McHugh (Boston College) each scored four goals in a 17-4 Inter-Ac win over Germantown Academy.
Sophomore Riley Davis had a goal, five assists, three ground balls and seven draw controls. Morgan Kelly made five saves.
McHugh had three goals and five draw controls in the 16-8 loss to Penn Charter. Conroy added two goals.
Another Big Game for Wanner
Last week we spotlighted Germantown Academy senior Sydney Wanner and she remains in the headlines after a monster game in a 16-8 win over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. The Georgetown commit totaled eight goals, three assists and six draw controls, showing why she is among the area’s elite players.
Also in the victory, Audrey Mennerich scored a hat trick.
In a loss to Notre Dame Academy, Maggie Luviano was the Patriots’ leading scorer with two goals.
SCH Update
Despite a 16-8 loss to Germantown Academy, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had one of its better scoring games.
Both Brae Powell and Devon Denato recorded hat tricks, while Madigan Wallach contributed two goals.
Kass Magarity contributed two assists with Powell and Haley Hamsher each earning one assist. Jenna Seidman recorded six saves.