Huskies Finish Season with Second Round Exit

Led by senior and co-captain Leila Storkamp and her team-high of 34 regular season goals, the Huskies, Stuyvesant’s girls’ lacrosse team, appeared poised to upset the eighth-seeded Brooklyn Technical High School in the first round of the playoffs. However, a rough start doomed Stuyvesant, as the Engineers opened up the game early, pulling ahead to a 7-2 lead after the first period. They held their commanding lead throughout the game, winning it 11-5 and advancing onward to the next round of the playoffs.

Captains Inbar Pe’er, Sara Ng, and Storkamp have been forced to deal with numerous difficulties throughout the season. From the search for a new coach to inconsistent attendance at practice, the team has not had an easy season. This hurt the team’s chemistry on the field. “Going forward, in future games, we could improve on communicating as a team on and off the field,” Ng said after a recent game. However, despite the struggles, they finished 7-5, not far off of last season’s 10-4 record. After a rough start, the team pulled it together at the end of the regular season, winning their last five games by a combined score of 69-8. Once the team started to click on the field, they were deadly in all facets of the game.

One consistent part of the team was a strong offense, which averaged a robust nine goals per game. It helped the team remain in contention even while the Huskies struggled early on as a whole. Without Lucy Wang (‘17) and her 100 goals from the prior season, easily the top mark in the PSAL, questions about who would shoulder more of an offensive load remained heading into the year. However, Storkamp and junior Isabela Seitz’s combined 6 goals in their opening game against Long Island City in an 8-7 victory set the tone for the season. To balance the offensive attack, Pe’er and Ng have been the backbones of a stout Huskies defense.

Taking an early look ahead to next year, the Huskies seem to be on track to keep their record above .500. Despite the loss of all three captains, they are the only graduating players from the roster, and members of the team have the potential to fill the seniors’ voids. Seitz will look to take over more of the scoring on the team, and a collection of upperclassmen will help her on that end. Similarly, after a freshman year in which goalie Evelyn Ma gave up 88 goals compared to 35 saves in the regular season, Ma will have another year to develop and improve her game as the last line of defense.

The Huskies fought through a trying season and came out with a respectable 7-5 record and a playoff berth. While they would have liked to have gone farther, given the team’s second round exit last year, this might have been slightly implausible given the loss of Wang. The Huskies played with tenacity and grit using the cards they were dealt and finished strong to prove it.