Highly touted girls lax program locked and loaded
The Garden City girls lacrosse team has been unstoppable the last seven years, winning seven consecutive state titles on their way to becoming one of the most dominant teams in all of Long Island sports. Coach Diane “Chappy” Chapman has been able to reload each year to the tune of more than 200 wins with talented underclassmen to support the experienced seniors and juniors that typically lead the team.
This year’s team will once again fit that formula after having graduated several All-Americans and experienced leaders from last year’s championship team. The team will rely on the leadership of captains Linda Marie Attanasio, Liz Furman, Carly Knowles and Lily Schmitt to bring another successful season to Garden City.
When you add Charlotte Castronova to the defensive lineup along with Furman and Knowles, and have junior Taylor Carpentier between the pipes, the GC defense will be formidable. Throw in swing players Attanasio, Schmitt and Jackie Jahelka, girls who will be moving between defense and midfield, along with the scoring abilities of attack Krista Dampman and Garden City once again looks like the team to beat.
At the time of this article the team has put together two dominating early season games – an 18-2 beating of Hewlett and a 17-8 conference victory over North Shore. Early season scoring leaders are Dampman with eight and Jahelka with six and another six players with at least two goals apiece. These games are a definite sign that the team is clicking on all cylinders already.
This will be an interesting season for the Garden City girls as Nassau County has moved to an ability based alignment during Conference play, meaning that the best of the best will be playing each other regardless of school size over the next six weeks. The Lady Trojans will face off against perennial winning teams like Farmingdale, Manhasset, Massapequa and Wantagh in Conference 1 play. The so-called ‘Power League’ will prepare Garden City for the rigors of their second season—the Nassau County, Long Island and State Championship season.
