Lady Jets Win Battle of Undefeated Teams

Nine different East Meadow girls lacrosse players led a scoring spree and helped their team knock MacArthur HS from the ranks of the undefeated in Conference AII action Tuesday night with a convincing 15-9 win under the lights at the Lady Generals' home field.

The win came after a Lady Jets slow start against an unfamiliar defensive formation.

“They play a zone defense, which we don’t see typically,“ said East Meadow Coach Colleen McMahon. “So it took awhile for us to adjust.“

Adjust they did -- with a scoring spree that commenced with a Ryan Meyer goal (Jessica Widmann assist) at the 20:24 mark, and successive goals for Jackie O’Leary, Maryssa Dazzo, and both Meyer and Widmann with ten left in the half.

The two teams swapped goals for the rest of the half, but with the score 9-4 in favor of East Meadow at the half, it was clear that not only had the Lady Jets gotten the zone situation figured out, but they were speedier than the MacArthur girls and more aggressively attacking their opponent’s attempts to clear the ball.

“We were making an effort to pressure their clears, and succeeding in finding our man,” McMahon said.

In the second half, East Meadow came out banging. A goal for Emily Fitzsimmons a half minute into it was a sign of plenty more to come -- and by the 10:37 mark, the Lady Jets had opened up a nine point spread at 15-6, when Nicole Provenzano netted one.

From that point on, both teams substituted liberally, and the result was not in doubt.

Leading the way on the offense were Ryan Meyer (4 goals, 2 assists), and Jessica Widmann (3 goals, 5 assists). O’Leary and Fitzsimmons had two goals apiece -- and a goal each came from the sticks of Provenzano, Borrensen, Cleary and Dazzo.

Vanessa DePasquale had 15 saves on the day.

Coach McMahon had praise for his team’s passing game, both on transition and in assists. “Our goal was to score on transition, and we passed the ball up the field well today,” she said afterward. “We got a lot of good shots on goal that came as a result of assists, too.”

With the win, East Meadow improved to 4-0 (5-6 overall), and along with Long Beach (5-0, 8-4 overall) is the only team left in the conference with no losses in league action.

MacArthur falls to 4-1 (6-6 overall).

There are three a games left in the regular season for East Meadow, including a showdown with top ranked and undefeated Long Beach at home, May 5, 4:30 p.m.

After that, the run-up to the playoffs finishes with trips to Freeport (May 9) and Plainview JFK (May 11).