OPENING SALVO: Princeton High girls’ lacrosse player Riley Devlin controls the ball in a game last spring. On Monday, junior midfielder Devlin tallied two goals and two assists to help PHS defeat Hightstown 16-7 in the season opener for both teams. The Tigers were slated to host WW/P-South on April 4 and are next in action when they play at Hillsborough on April 15. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

On one hand, the Princeton High girls’ lacrosse team is dealing with a major void in the wake of the graduation of a senior class that drove the squad.

But as the Class of ’22 moves on, with four of the six playing at the college level, a corps of promising freshmen has arrived on the scene to fill that gap.

“The freshmen are really a special group, so I am excited to see what they do,” said PHS head coach Katie Federico, who led the Tigers to a 12-6 record last spring and a spot in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals. “They really look up to the upperclassmen and they are trying to learn through that. They stick together, they connect and they have been playing Ultimate club together. It reminds me of last year’s seniors, this crew is kind of the same.”

Federico will be relying on two of those upperclassmen, juniors Sarah Henderson and Phoebe Steiger (14 goals, 4 assists in 2022), to lead the attack unit as they are both at full speed after being hampered with injury in 2022.

“Sarah is back, which is great; anybody when they are picking it back up, it takes a while,” said Federico of Henderson, who tallied three goals and five assists as PHS opened the season by defeating Hightstown 16-7 last Monday. “She has been playing for a while now, so it has been nice to have that. She definitely has the drive and perseverance to go further, just like her sister Shoshi (former PHS star and current Pomona-Pitzer standout). Phoebe has made a jump. Last year she had some injury with her legs; this year she seems to be pretty good in that sense. She has definitely taken on a leadership role — it has been nice to see that transition with her.”

Senior Reece Gallagher (5 goals) and junior Sylvie LeBouef (3 goals, 4 assists) should also provide some offensive production.

“Reece has been pretty consistent there,” said Federico of Gallagher, who tallied two goals in the win over Hightstown. “Sylvie LeBeouf will be coming back from injury. She will be on attack. We have some freshman too that are stepping up.”

Junior star Riley Devlin (54 goals, 13 assists) has been a consistent force in the midfield for PHS.

“You can see that Riley truly loves the game of lacrosse,” said Federico of Devlin, who chipped in two goals and two assists in the season opener. “It has been nice to see her step up in a leadership role, helping the freshmen. It is just like when she was a freshman, when Shoshi was helping her.”

Three of the team’s precocious freshmen — Quinn Gallagher, Leah Bornstein, and Nicki Lee — will be running with Devlin in the midfield.

“Seeing Quinn with Riley is really nice,” said Federico, who got two goals and an assist from Gallagher against Hightstown with Bornstein adding two goals and Lee contributing five goals and two assists. “Leah is a tiny, feisty girl — she has spunk. Nicki will also be on our midfield.”

On defense, junior Joci Lee, the older sister of Nicki, provides a lot of spunk.

“Joci has taken over the lead on defense; she had some great players to learn from with Grace Rebak, Sarah Glenn, and Sarah White,” said Federico, who will also be using junior Theona Hsu, junior Julia Engelhart, junior Holly Howes, and freshman Zoie Reynolds along the back line. “She learned a lot. You can see how it impacted her and how she is playing on the field.”

The pair of junior Allegra Brennan and freshman Olivia DeLuca will be looking to make an impact at goalie.

“Allegra played her freshman year with us and then took off last year,” said Federico. “She does have goalie experience. She played Ultimate before and then realized last year, after not playing, that she really missed it a lot. She has stepped up in the goalie role. Olivia is also a soccer goalie; she decided to give it a try and she is doing quite well.

With PHS slated to host WW/P-South on April 4 and then play at Hillsborough on April 15, Federico is hoping that her young squad can keep making progress.

“They were led for a while by that group from last year, so having confidence in themselves and working together as a unit is huge,” said Federico. “I keep telling them, ‘communication.’ You have to communicate, whether you are on attack, whether you are in the mid, or whether you are on defense. You have to have that communication piece; they are starting to jell more and getting used to each other.”

Federico is confident that PHS will jell into something special this spring.

“I have always said this to them, ‘Our success is when you are having fun and you are giving it 100 percent all of the time,’” said Federico. “If you give me 100 percent, then we have had a successful game and you have done well. The wins are the icing on the cake. We have a lot of fun. They are definitely a unit, they really support each other in every which way.”