2000 Girls’ Lacrosse
Head Coach / Jean
Maher
Captains / Samantha Hall ’00, Kelly Sheridan
’00
Record 8–6
Wandelt Lacrosse Award / Samantha
Hall
Captains-Elect / Victoria Fox ’01, Christine Murphy ’01
The season began with three easy
victories and the usual high expectations for this lacrosse team,
which has been among the best in New England for several years.
However, five consecutive losses made for an unusual mid-season
predicament for Coach Jean Maher and the team. The play of seniors
Keely Murphy, Sam Hall, Kate Putnam, and Meredith Morris helped to
pull things together for a late-season run to finish with an 8–6
overall record. The team’s finest play came at the very end during a
14–13 win over Choate and a 10–11 loss to rival Hotchkiss. The
four-year seniors in this program have enjoyed a fabulous run, at
45–10–1. This year, Kelly Sheridan and Chrissy Murphy were selected
as first-team All-New England, and Emily Smith was honored as an
Academic All-American.
2000 Boys’ Lacrosse
Founders’ League Champions
Head Coach / Steve
McKibben
Captains / Eric Dalton ’00, Jake McKenna ’00, Tim
Pettit ’00
Record 14–0
Odden Lacrosse Award / Jake
McKenna
All-American / Jake McKenna, Tim Pettit, Kevin Nee
’01
Captain-Elect / Christian Jensen ’01
At 14–0, this was a season of
firsts for the boys’ varsity squad. It was the first undefeated
season in the 38-year history of boys’ lacrosse at Taft. The team
won the Founders’ League for the first time in 25 years, keyed by a
15–13 win over rival Loomis-Chafee. It was also the first time one
school has had three players named All-American in the same season.
Game highlights include a phenomenal 28–8 victory over previously
undefeated NMH and an overtime win over Salisbury. According to
coach Steve McKibben, the special success of this year’s squad was
built on personal sacrifice for the team in that some players moved
to new positions, others accepted and excelled at a limited role,
and everyone put in something extra to make sure that this was a
perfect season. Kevin Nee set a new single-season record with 54
goals and was selected as the league’s top attackman; Tim Pettit
posted the single-season assist record with 40, was selected as the
outstanding midfielder, and also won 81 percent of his face-offs, an
unprecedented statistic. And, Jake McKenna was the best goalie in
New England, earning the Most Valuable Defensive Player award for
the league. All three were named All-Americans—the first time one
school has swept all three league awards. (Taft has only had four
other AAs: Jake Odden ’86, Andrew Everett ’88, Courtland Weisleder
’95, and David Jenkins ’97.) Both the JV and thirds teams finished
at 12–2, capping off a fantastic season down the line.
|
