The five time state champions, the women’s lacrosse team, is looking to make another run for the title to make it a six this spring season. Last year, the Crusaders took on Lake Oswego in the state championship at Pioneer Stadium and came out on top winning 12-9 .
The Women's Lacrosse team was faced with yet another challenge this year when they learned that their head coach, Lauren Lakey, is expected to have a baby at the start of the season. With Lakey being out on maternity leave, assistant coach Vanessa Swallwell is stepping up to take the head coaching spot while Lakey is away.
“On one hand, I am really excited to have a kid but it makes me really sad because I love coaching and especially this team,” Lakey said.
Senior captains Quinny Handley and Gigi Abernethy are both D1 commits who are big leaders of this year's team. They were both captains last year as Juniors and have been starting all four years, watching the team grow.
“This year our goals are to really work as a unified team and utilize every player,” Handley said.
The Crusaders lost only two seniors, Lucy Maddocks and Courtney Vogt, but they were both players that made a huge impact on the field.
“I think losing last year's seniors definitely was hard with the team chemistry part,” Abernethy said. “They really brought the team together and brought everyone’s personality out.”
Jesuit looks forward to a tough season, traveling to Seattle to play Mercer Island and having Seattle Prep come down to Portland. Last season the crusaders lost by one in a tough match against Mercer Island so they are looking forward to traveling back up there this spring.
“A key strategy for Seattle Prep coming down April 5th is to keep up with their high tempo play because they are a fast and competitive team,” Lakey said.
This year Jesuit is switching things up a bit by not playing Lake Oswego in preseason, which brought some disappointment throughout the team. The Lakers are taking a different approach to the season after falling to the crusaders in years past.
“I think that it’s extremely disappointing that we aren't able to play LO before playoffs this year,” Abernethy said. “It is one of the most competitive games and gives us our biggest challenge before the playoffs begin.”
“Obviously LO can make the decisions they want to make,” Lakey said. “I am bummed that we won't have that highly competitive matchup during the season.”
As for Jesuit’s competitors, Grant and OES continue to make runs in the playoffs and those two teams will be two of the crusaders biggest games this season. In 2023, Grant came off with a win against Jesuit in the regular season, but the Crusaders shut them down when playoffs came, and ever since the game has become a rivalry. The Generals will travel to Cronin to play the Crusaders on Monday, April 21.
In terms of the team this year it is filled with an extremely talented senior class with 7 players who all have made an impact on this team in the past four years that they have played.
Both senior captains noted that sophomores Hazel Mackey and Claire Comstock are both notable players to look out for this season with Mackey in the midfield and Comstock in the defense.
“They got a lot of playing time and played crucial roles in our team during the playoffs last year,” Handley said.
The crusaders hope to start the season off strong with the opener against a team they normally don’t play, St. Mary’s, on Tuesday, March 18th.
