The St. Anthony’s Varsity Girl’s Lacrosse team ended the year with a 15-3 record and a CHSAA State Championship. They are currently ranked as the #1 team on Long Island and Top 10 team nationally.

This year’s team played one of the toughest schedules in the history of the program with the majority of their non-league opponents ranked in the Top 15 in the nation.  While we suffered a few setbacks, these girls learned from the few losses and worked to improve each and every week. This allowed us to end the season with the most complete performance of the year in our championship game defeating Sacred Heart 17-5.

Our team led the league with Six ALL LEAGUE players selected.

Senior Ava Biancardi was named the Co-Player of the Year for our league and Sophomore Lexi Zenk was named the MVP of our Championship game.

While there were many incredible performances from individuals throughout the season, what we are most proud of is how this group bought into the idea of playing together, as a unit with a team-first mentality. Our group’s success can also be attributed to the strong leadership exhibited by our seniors who kept the team together when facing adversity.

Congratulations to the varsity girls lacrosse team on a great season.

CONGRATULATIONS 
MVP - Kathleen McAteer
Team Scholar Athlete - Tayor Cullen

Summer Koepplin has coached at St. Anthony’s since 2011, initially as the assistant Varsity coach and has served as head coach the last 8 years. Since 2015, Coach Koepplin has led the team to seven NSCHSAA titles, eight regular season championship titles, coached 7 All-Americans, and six CHSAA Players of the Year.

She was also named the 2019 CHSAA Coach of the year.

By Owen O'Brien Newsday May 17, 2022 

Win or lose, Tuesday was going to be the final game of the season for both the St. Anthony’s and Sacred Heart girls lacrosse teams. The Friars worked all season through a grueling non-league schedule and two tough matchups against Sacred Heart in hopes of being at their best in the final.

St. Anthony’s did just that, putting an exclamation point on their season with a 17-5 victory over Sacred Heart in the CHSAA girls lacrosse ‘AA’ final at Adelphi to win its third straight championship.

“It was the most complete, wonderful game they’ve played all year,” coach Summer Koepplin said. “Everything about it was amazing.”

St. Anthony’s (15-2) defeated Sacred Heart (10-10) twice during the regular season, by a combined four goals. The Friars wanted to control the game from the very start.

“Every game against Sacred Heart this season was a really good one,” said Ava Biancardi, who had three goals. “We came out here ready to win, ready to play as a team and we showed it.”

St. Anthony’s scored the game’s first four goals in the opening 7:04 and took an 8-2 lead at halftime. The Friars outscored Sacred Heart 9-3 in the second half, including scoring eight of the game’s final 10 goals.

“As a senior, we knew we were going to give our hearts and give it all and that’s exactly what we did that tonight,” Biancardi said. “We knew we wanted to finish the season on a victory and that’s what we did.”

St. Anthony’s had contributions all over the field. Tess Calabria had five goals, Tanner Scarola had a goal and four assists and Meredith McPharlin had a goal and three assists. Abigail LoCascio had two goals and an assist, Megan Kenny and Rose Christie each scored two goals and Katherine McAteer scored.

“They just played as a complete and unselfish unit,” Koepplin said. “Almost every goal was assisted and it was just perfect. Our transition was gorgeous, our defense played lights out. It was a full team win.”

The Friars’ dominating defensive presence included Lexie Zenk’s 10 saves. Zenk, a sophomore, credited her team’s defense for rarely allowing Sacred Heart a clean shot on goal.

“This is the best I’ve ever seen us play,” Zenk said. “Everybody played their part. Everyone played their role and a goalie is only as good as their defense.”

Zenk and Calabria, the leading goal scorer Tuesday, are both sophomores, which bodes well for St. Anthony’s beyond this season.

“We have underclassmen that just crush pressure,” Koepplin said. “And that’s phenomenal for me to see as a coach.”

The St. Anthony’s girls lacrosse team can defeat teams any way it has to.

Sure, the Friars love to run up and down the field and have a scoring sheet featuring multiple players with four or five points, but sometimes the game calls for something different.

Saturday was one of those different kinds of games. But the end result was exactly the same as the Friars come to expect — a victory.

St. Anthony’s defeated Greenwich Academy (Connecticut), 6-5, at the Gains for Brains girls lacrosse showcase supporting the Making Headway Foundation at Cold Spring Harbor High School Saturday afternoon. The Friars, with 101 goals in eight games, relied on a strong defensive effort throughout the contest.

“Our defense played fantastic, our goalie played fantastic,” coach Summer Koepplin said. “That whole unit, that was really impressive. We prep heavy on defense, it’s always one of our strongest parts.”

Shae Lembo had nine saves behind a tough defense including Samantha Baker, Taylor Cullen and Amanda Paci.

“We just come together as a unit and know we can hold offenses as long as we need to until we get the ball back,” Cullen said. “That’s just our mindset going into those long defensive holds.”

And when a player breaks loose, the Friars know Lembo will be there to halt the attack more often than not.

“We always know she has our back,” Cullen said. “We say all the time in games ‘Thanks Shae’ when she saves something when we miscommunicate. She’s just such a big presence in the goal and we really couldn’t do it without her.”

Lembo embraces being the last line of defense and although it’s not always the most comfortable feeling, she loves the team relying on her.

“I thrive under pressure so I feel I just zone and try to make the saves I can,” Lembo said “I support my defense and just make sure we are playing together as a unit.”

St. Anthony’s (7-1) opened a 5-1 lead with 13:28 remaining in the first half, including two goals from Tess Calabria.

“Those goals determined the game,” Calabria said. “We’re big on trying to run and gun and get right to it at the beginning.”

The Friars led 6-3 at halftime and Greenwich Academy scored the only two goals of the second half.

“We’re really fortunate to have some great defenders and we’re not lopsided on offense,” Calabria said. “We’re pretty even across all points of the field.”

St. Anthony’s plays one of the most competitive schedules in the country. After not having a season in 2020 and only playing league contests in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the players embrace the opportunity to consistently play top teams from the area yet again.

“We love that we play on a national scale,” Lembo said. “Not just Long Island or New York teams but being able to play teams from everywhere just brings everyone’s talent and greatness out. It makes us thrive as a team.”

GIRLS LACROSSE   BACK FIELD updated 3/2

Sat. March 5th

Varsity 8:00 AM -10:00 PM

All Goalies 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

JV & JVB 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Sun. March 6th 

Varsity  12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

All Goalies 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

JV and JVB 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Head Coach Summer Koepplin - skoepplin@stanthonyshs.org