N.B. girls lacrosse suffers two losses to end season
Raiders lose state tourney game, GMC final to finish 14-2
BY GEORGE ALBANO Staff Writer
One of the best seasons the North Brunswick High School girls lacrosse team ever had may be remembered more for the two games the Raiders lost than the 14 they won.

North Brunswick rolled through the regular season undefeated and boasted a perfect record of 14-0 heading into its NJSIAA North Jersey Group 3 state tournament game against Roxbury of Succasunna last Monday.

But the Raiders, who drew a firstround bye, couldn't have picked a worse time to suffer their first loss of 2008 as Roxbury, behind eight goals from Rachel Senyszyn, posted a 15-12 victory.

Roxbury has become somewhat of a Cinderella team this postseason. The No. 20 seed, which went 11-7 in the regular season and was only 6-6 in the Iron Hills Conference, also knocked off Ridgewood by an identical 15-12 score last Thursday to advance to the Group 3 state sectional championship game.

In fact, the Gaels were one of the five teams in the tough Iron Hills Conference to reach state sectional finals.

"They're a good team," South Brunswick head coach Pam Sagehorn said. "They beat us pretty good."

But that loss wasn't nearly as painful for the Lady Raiders as their game against rival Old Bridge three days later for the Greater Middlesex Conference championship. The two schools were meeting for the third straight year in the GMC finals, splitting the last two seasons.

North Brunswick's bid for a second consecutive title, however, was denied whenAmber Zimmerlink scored on a freeposition shot with three seconds remaining in overtime to give Old Bridge a thrilling 10-9 victory and the conference championship … and give the Raiders an abrupt and disappointing ending to an otherwise outstanding season.

"We played hard and left our hearts on the field," Sagehorn said. "It just didn't go our way."

Whatmade the loss even harder to swallow was the fact North Brunswick had beaten Old Bridge in both of their regularseason meetings, defeating the Knights 15- 13April 8 and again 13-9April 24.

One month later, however, it was a different Old Bridge team that took the field. Sagehorn says it was a different North Brunswick team as well.

"We didn't come out as strong as we should have," she said. "We let them score the first goal, and that's not a good thing whenever the other team scores first. Plus we did a lot of things we don't normally do, like check when we should have played the body.

"And I think it was because it was Old Bridge. We did not play smart. We didn't play our game."

Of course, the Knights may have had something to do with that, as they became the first team all season to hold the usually potent North Brunswick offense to single digits.

"They shut down our ball handlers," Sagehorn pointed out. "They double- and triple-teamed Erin Dunne and tried to face guard her so she couldn't handle the ball and get any passes off. It was a very effective defense against us."

Dunne, who reached the 200 careergoal plateau this season, had scored seven goals in the first win over Old Bridge and five in the rematch. But the Knights' tenacious defense did a good job shutting the Raiders' most dangerous offensive threat down the third time around, limiting her to three goals and one assist.

Meanwhile, the other two senior tricaptains, Meghan Olmstead and Kaitlyn Curran, both 100-goal scorers in their careers, were also held in check. Curran recorded two goals and a pair of assists, while Olmstead also scored twice.

"They denied Erin the ball and let Meghan and Kaitlyn catch it, but then double and triple-teamed them as soon as they caught it," Sagehorn explained. "We knew it was coming and we tried to be ready for it."

Christina Borbas accounted for the other two goals by North Brunswick and also had one assist.

The Raiders appeared to be on the verge of winning the game and another GMC title as they held a 9-8 lead in the closing minutes. But Zimmerlink, who would finish with five goals, set up Mary Honan's gametying goal with only 1:32 left.

North Brunswick, which was outshot 22-18, managed to get three shots off in the extra session, but Old Bridge goalie Heather Kesselman stopped them all.

Then with 20 seconds left in the first overtime, the Raiders were called for a foul, resulting in the free shot by Zimmerlink, who ran in and beat goalie Frankie Russo (12 saves) for the game winner.

"It was a good shot by her, but I don't know if I agreed with the call," Sagehorn said of the foul. "There were 20 seconds left when the callwasmade, but by the time she took the shot, there was only three seconds left and we couldn't do anything.

"At the end of the day everyone gave it their all. It just didn't go our way."

Most of the rest of the season did, however, as North Brunswick finished an impressive 14-2.

"We had a great season," Sagehorn said. "When it came down to it, we just couldn't pull out the championship game, and the state tournament game was a game we could've won, too. Maybe we peaked a little too early.

"But I told all our players after the loss to Old Bridge to keep their heads up. We had a great season."