HARTFORD’S HAILEY VANASSE has the reach, but Commodore Meredith Dufault has the inside position to win this draw during the lacrosse game at Mount Abe on Tuesday.
Independent photo/Steve James

BRISTOL — The Mount Abraham-Vergennes cooperative girls’ lacrosse team opened their season on Tuesday with a new coach and a competitive effort in a 14-10 setback against Hartford, Division II’s top tournament seed in 2024.

The Hurricanes, a team that includes athletes who won D-II field hockey and ice hockey championships this school year, kept threatening to break the game open. But Coach Emiko Chrusciel’s Commodores consistently answered to remain in striking distance. Hartford finally went into stall mode with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter to nail down the victory.

Chrusciel was pleased with the grit displayed by her young team, which has only four seniors on its roster of 18. One of the seniors is goalie Kendra Jackson, who volunteered to play that position with no prior experience. The others are midfielder Safoura Camara and attackers Esme Visco-Lyons and Ruby Hellier.

“I was super-impressed with how they came back,” Chrusciel said. “In every quarter we stopped and talked about you’re going to fight for every ground ball, and you just have to keep working together. And they want to work for each other. And so that just helped them continue to push themselves and work hard and keep going to the very end, all four quarters.”

The game got off to a promising start for the Commodores, who scored two unanswered goals in the first 4:08. The first when sophomore middie/attacker Thompson Davis, cutting to goal, buried a Camara feed. Sophomore Meredith Dufault converted a free position after a Hartford foul with 7:52 on the clock to make it 2-0.

Hartford found its groove, however, and closed the period on a 4-0 run to take the lead for good. Defender Paige Trombly started the surge by picking up an MAV turnover at midfield and bolting in and scoring. Then the big guns took over. Audrey Rupp, who finished with three goals and three assists, scored twice, and Madison Barwood tossed in the first of her five goals, and it was 4-2 after one period.

Jackson made two saves to open the second period and momentarily take the wind out of the Hurricanes’ sails. But soon Barwood struck again, and Nella Bowen added the first of her three goals to make it 6-2 at 7:02 of the second period.

Dufault answered for MAV 26 seconds later with a solo run from the left side. Jackson kicked away a Barwood breakaway with about four minutes to go, but could not stop a Rupp free position shot 3:04, and Hartford led at the half, 7-3.

Freshman midfielder Callie Rule earned a free position early in the third quarter that was saved, but Dufault scooped the rebound and tucked it home to make it 7-4. Barwood answered quickly for Hartford, but with 5:17 gone sophomore MAV attacker Aubrey Coffey curled around the goal from the left and found the goal’s bottom left corner to make it 8-5.

MAV SENIOR GOALIE Kendra James kicks away a bid by Hartford’s Madison Barwood for a breakaway goal during the lacrosse game at Mount Abe on Tuesday.
Independent photo/Steve James

Hartford then threatened to break the game open with a three-goal run in a span of 43 seconds in which Rupp set up two goals, one by Barwood and one by Bowen, and scored once. That surge made it 11-5 at 3:00.

The Commodores responded. At 2:05 Coffey earned a free position and from the edge of the fan fired a bullet into the upper far corner. At 1:32 Davis cut to goal and took a feed from Visco-Lyons on the left and found the net’s near side to make it 11-7.

In the period’s final minute, junior middie June Yates-Rusch had a chance to make it 11-8, but the Hurricane goalie (unidentified by Hartford) made a kick save, the last of her three.

Hailey Vanasse and Barwood pushed the Hartford lead to 13-7 early in the fourth, but MAV kept after it. Freshman Ada Hellier scooped a loose ball out front and spun to score, and another long-range Coffey free-position conversion at 8:57 made it 13-9 and gave MAV hope.

But Hartford won the draw, and Barwood, Rupp and Vanesse then stalled effectively at the edge of the Hartford offensive zone. After killing off about five minutes, the ball went out of a double-team to Trombly. She bolted to goal, drew a foul, and converted a free position at 3:41 and ice the win.

Visco-Lyons added one more goal for the Commodores, taking a pass out front from freshman Callie Rule and tucking the ball inside the left post.

Chrusciel, who coached many of the team’s players during their middle school years, said MAV will only improve as the season progresses. She sees strengths the team can build on, including athleticism.

MAV SOPHOMORE AUBREY Coffey goes on the attack during Tuesday’s girls’ lacrosse game at Mount Abe. Coffey scored three goals for the Commodores.
Independent photo/Steve James

“I think our speed is one of our biggest strengths, and our ability to work hard in the midfield to slow (the other team’s transition) down, especially against a good team like Hartford, who can run the midfield really well,” she said.

And she was pleased the Commodores held their own on Tuesday.

“It just shows what we are capable of for the future as they continue to get to know me as a coach, even though I coached a lot of them in middle school, what it’s like to work for me as varsity coach now,” Chrusciel said. “And to hang with a good team like this is really encouraging for them.”