Nazareth winning at the right time

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-lacrosse-lehigh-valley-0512-20120512,0,1772871.story FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES It isn't unusual for scholastic sports teams to refer to themselves as a family and share stories of their bonding together. The Nazareth Area High School girls lacrosse team is an extremely close family that bonds maybe a little more often than usual. And it all starts at the top. Coach Jennifer Nolan's assistant is also her husband, Regis D'Angelo Jr. On Wednesday evening, one night before the Blue Eagles upset Parkland 9-5 in a Lehigh Valley Conference playoff semifinal, the wife-husband coaching staff invited their players to their home in Forks Township for pizza, dessert and a movie. (Nolan admitted, though, that the movie was not a comedy or drama. They instead watched tape of previous games against Parkland.) "We love the girls and we know they like us, too," Nolan said during a break in Saturday's practice. "They like coming over to our house and we enjoy being with them. We look at them as our children. We're very blessed to have this type of relationship with our players." That relationship is still blossoming, and so is Nazareth's 2012 lacrosse campaign. With a roster full of seniors and The Morning Call's player of the year returning in Kaity Wiltraut, hopes were high at the start of the season for the Blue Eagles: "We have a talented senior class that has the ability to be unstoppable," Nolan said of her team in the preseason. Nazareth was good but not great for much of the season. It started 7-7, with three defeats coming by a goal and two coming in overtime. Nolan and D'Angelo spent some sleepless nights. "We were trying to figure out what we were doing wrong and what we could do to put it all together," Nolan said. Now, the Blue Eagles have reeled off five consecutive victories and seem to be hitting their stride at the perfect time. They led Parkland, a team they'd lost to twice during the LVC season, 7-0 at one point in their semifinal matchup. Nolan said she cannot single out a turning point. "We're definitely playing as a team but we always played as a team," she said. "One thing is we never gave up. There were a couple things during the season that were unfortunate, but those things only made us stronger. We've got great senior leadership, we've got experience, dedication, determination and chemistry." Wiltraut is the team's star, amassing 84 goals and 33 assists through 19 games. She was named the LVC's most valuable player this week. But Nolan is quick to compliment the other seniors, specifically midfielders Hilary Holecz and Natasha Capecci, and goalkeeper Rachel Strzelecki. All four players were first team all-conference. "Kaity feeds off the team and the team feeds off Kaity," Nolan said. Third-seeded Nazareth (12-7) meets its nemesis, No. 1 Emmaus (15-4), on Monday evening at Andrew S. Leh Stadium with the conference title at stake. The Green Hornets defeated Nazareth three times last season, including 15-11 in the District 11 final. Emmaus is 2-0 against the Blue Eagles this season. The girls' game starts at 5:30 p.m., while the boys' championship is also a showdown between No. 3 seed Nazareth (13-5) and No. 1 Emmaus (12-6). The boys are scheduled to face off at 7 p.m. in Nazareth. View from the penalty box • The Emmaus boys' team rolled to a pair of wins over Nazareth during the LVC season by identical scores of 12-5. That could be bad news, though, for the Green Hornets. In Thursday night's semifinals, both of the teams who won the two regular-season meetings — Easton and Central Catholic — lost to Emmaus and Nazareth, respectively. Green Hornets first-year coach Scott Ketcham is certainly excited for the shot at an LVC title: "This is why I came to Emmaus." Emmaus is the four-time defending conference champion. • Though the games will be played on Nazareth's home turf, perennial power Emmaus is favored to capture both the girls' and boys' LVC championships based on two things: this year's results and championship pedigree. • Expect the District 11 boys' tournament to be a replay of the LVC playoffs, assuming Emmaus defeats Nazareth on Monday. The only difference is Easton is likely to play Parkland in the quarterfinals for the right to play the top seed. In talking to Easton coach Brad Bachman, he indicated he's had conversations with Parkland Athletic Director/lacrosse Chairman Jeff Geisel about generating ideas to avoid constant repeat matchups (it happened last year, too) from the conference tournament to districts. • The District 11 girls' playoffs will be much more intriguing than the boys' since Southern Lehigh played its season as an independent. The No. 1 seed will belong to the LVC champion, but the Spartans — a combined 4-1 vs. the top three LVC teams — have proven capable of beating any team in the area. • I'm all about coaches trying to get the best players on the all-conference team, but four goalkeepers on the first team? Really? The LVC girls' team, which was released last week, included Parkland's Meg Chenworth, Emmaus' Allison Haas, Nazareth's Rachel Strzelecki and Easton's Bri Pendleton-Wise. All play goalie, and play the position very well. Zero defenders were selected to the first team. That's wrong. (I've seen all four goalies in action. It is a close call but I'll take Pendleton-Wise.)