
For the boys and girls lacrosse programs at Mission Bay High, this season’s campaign will definitely go down as a winner.
Both teams turned in fantastic performances on the season for head coach Dave McCarthy.
The girls went 18-4, winning the league title for the first time (went unbeaten in league play). Mission Bay finished 13th in the CIF San Diego Section and first in Division II. The Bucs lost the CIF Division II championship by one goal in the last 10 seconds of the game.
According to McCarthy, the team was led by a lot of seniors. “Kylie Kroeger, who will be playing Div. 1 lacrosse at Arizona State next season, was our biggest leader,” McCarthy said. “She helped start the girls lacrosse program four years ago and has worked so hard to get the program to where it is now. Kylie scored so many clutch goals and made so many amazing plays throughout the season to get us to where we were.”
McCarthy also pointed out the play of Lindsey Price, who is also a senior midfielder. “She did everything for us on the field whether it was take the draws, give assists or score goals. She was a great senior leader and tremendous team player.”
According to McCarthy, Ludmila Raynal, a senior captain, was the team’s star attacker. She scored multiple goals in each game, but did so much more for the team than that.
Senior captain Lea Reyes, and Emery Reyna led the defense, playing almost every minute of every game. They led the team in takeaways, as the defense and senior goaltender Makaila Corpus allowed the fewest goals in the league.
“We had a heart breaking finish to an amazing year,” McCarthy said. “This was the best season in the program’s young history. A lot of players who helped start lacrosse at Mission Bay are graduating this year, but they left us with an amazing program that is going to continue to work hard.” Boys lax
Success was also easy to find on the boys’ side. The Bucs went 13-8 and won their first league crown. Mission Bay made its first post-season appearance, getting its first playoff win before falling to El Camino.
“We had a lot of seniors on this team, so leadership was never a problem,” McCarthy said. “The boys played with a tremendous effort and heart this season and that allowed us to continually improve throughout the season.”
According to McCarthy, Grant Sawyer was one of the team’s senior captains and a great leader. “He had a lot of points this season, but was our glue that kept the team together and pushed the rest of the team to get better.”
The defense was led by a great group of seniors such as captain Mohamad Daabas, Dane and Finn Snead. McCarthy noted that goalie Logan Turbes made spectacular saves in all the right moments to keep the team alive in games.
“The varsity lacrosse team at Mission Bay had all the heart and passion for the game a coach could ask for,” McCarthy commented. “I believe this group of young men has changed the image of what it is to be a lacrosse player at Mission Bay. “We had a very successful season in my eyes as we were able to obtain our goals of winning the league and making the playoffs for the first time. I could not be more proud of this team.” McCarthy had great support from his coaching staff (Grant Kroeger and Matt Vozzolo) during the season as well.