LYNN — Win face-offs, you get possession. Win the possession battle, you get goals.
Such were the cases in Sunday’s Agganis All-Star Girls Lacrosse Game at Manning Field. North conceded the first goal of the game, but dominated after the early wakeup call en route to a 15-4 win against South.
North was coached by Ipswich’s Allison Tivnan, whose approach was, “To have fun.”
“The girls – they looked awesome,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever coached an All-Star game, too, so I didn’t really know what to expect.”
Well, what she got was tremendous ball-movement.
After South’s opening strike, courtesy of Winchester’s Maggie Shevland (2 goals), North scored the next 11 goals to lead, 11-1, by the end of the third quarter.
“As a cohesive group, we had so many assists,” Tivnan said. “Which, I feel, for an All-Star game, is crazy. Usually, it’s a lot of one-on-ones.”
Shevland was named South’s Most Valuable Player, with half of her team’s goals.
On the North side of things, Ipswich’s Halle Greenleaf (7 goals) stole the show to earn MVP honors. She had two goals after the first quarter, three more in the second, and another two in the fourth.
She said, “It definitely felt more like fun,” as opposed to an in-season game.
“I don’t know, I guess I just got a good night’s sleep,” she said. “This whole team was really good. It was a great group of people.”
South was coached by Peabody’s Michelle Roach, who gave props to the opposing star.
“Halle is a tremendous player and she really grabbed the momentum, and helped them get ahead of us early,” Roach said.
Despite a slow first three quarters, Roach’s team received fourth-quarter goals from Shevland and Burlington’s Charlize Collins. Also in the second half, Winchester’s Callie Westerfield impressed defensively.
“I think we settled it down after the half,” Roach said. “We had low numbers, but they worked really hard and we worked well in transition.”
Speaking of Burlington, Roach had some fun with its players.
“Listen, you guys ran fastbreaks on me all day (in the regular season). I want to see some of those,” she said with a smile.
Roach’s netminder during the regular season, Caitlin Snow of Peabody, did her job with four key saves to keep South afloat.
“Caitlin, between the pipes, was awesome,” Roach said. “The only junior. It’s a senior-only game, but schedules were really busy this year. Caitlin came in and I think she did great – and she was so excited to be here.”
Time ran out on South, despite finding its momentum toward the tail-end of the game. Despite the loss, Roach couldn’t have been happier in her third season involved with the Agganis Games.
“I love this event,” she said. “When I was in high school (St. Mary’s), I was an Agganis scholar. It’s a really important organization and it means a lot to me.”
