Spencerport girls lacrosse was a fixture in the latter part of the last decade, advancing to the Class B Section V championship game in 2016, 2018 and 2019. After the past two middling seasons, it appears the Rangers are returning to form as a team ready to again challenge for their first Section V title with a 7-4 record heading into their final four games of the regular season.
“We’re just changing how we play,” first year head coach Tara Pittman said. “We used to tend to rely on a couple of girls to kind of carry the weight of everybody on their back. All 12 girls on the field now carry their own weight and it’s completely changed how we play the game.
“You can see we’re a completely different team than last year and that’s on the kids – they put in the time, they put in the work, they trust each other and it’s showing out on the field.”
The team does revolve around junior and Syracuse commit Molly Guzik, who leads the team in almost every offensive category and takes all of the draws. An All-Greater Rochester Honorable Mention in 2022, Guzik is among the top-ten in Section V with 41 goals and 12th with 53 points. She leads all players this year with 99 draw controls and is third in ground balls (44).
But there is plenty of depth, which doesn’t allow opposing teams to key on one player defensively.
Classmate Alyssa Nichols was an All-League Second Team selection in 2022 and the Arizona State commit is second on the team with 24 goals and 36 points while third in ground balls with 21.
Freshman Brooke Endres, in her second year with the varsity squad, has added another option on the offensive side of the field with 22 goals and 34 points and is second in ground balls with 23. She is the sixth highest point getter and seventh highest goal scorer among freshmen in Section V.
“We have a new coach this year…and we’re young, but we’re here to fight and play together,” Guzik said.
“We have really good team chemistry; we all get along and we work really well together, and it’s working in our favor this season,” Nichols added.
In their own end, senior MaKenna Husser has played 500 minutes as the primary goalkeeper and made 48 saves while allowing 60 goals in 11 games. Supporting her defensively are seniors Isabella Buono (Slippery Rock commit), Kayla Baca and Adrianna O’Heron (who has committed to play women’s ice hockey at Neumann University), along with junior Taylor Page.
The team lost consecutive games to top-seed Canandaigua and Penfield in late April, but then began May with a three-game winning streak, allowing a combined 12 goals.
“It (the losses) was definitely a wake-up call for us, but we’re definitely looking forward to playing them again in sectionals because, after those games, I think we came to practice ready to go,” Guzik said. “It’s not that we underestimated those teams at all, it’s just that maybe now we’re a little more prepared for them.”
“With the new coach this year, we’ve really learned not to worry about mistakes and just work our butts off to get the ball back,” Endres said.
“We knew those were going to be tougher games, but regardless of the outcome of those games, we knew we were going to learn from it,” Pittman added. “We dissected the film and went through everything and we’re ready if we see Canandaigua again in sectionals.
“Losses for us are not a sign of defeat or failure, it’s just about how we’re going to grow from it.”
The Rangers finish the regular season with two home games against Greece and Webster-Thomas May 15 and 17, respectively, before trying to reemerge as a power in Section V girls lacrosse in the playoffs.
