We’ve reached the heart of the girls’ lacrosse season here in Texas, and Anderson’s team has been busy of late. The Trojans have gone 2-1 in their last three with dominating victories over The Woodlands and Westlake and a tough loss to last year’s state runner-up St. Michael’s. The Trojans now sit at 7-1 on the year with 5 games left to play. Additionally, USA Lacrosse ranked Anderson the #11 public school in the country, showing the ability of these Trojans to compete with some of the prestigious programs of the North.
After a 5-0 start, Anderson faced a game that some thought would be their toughest matchup yet. Instead, the Trojans demolished The Woodlands 18-6 behind a 5-goal game from Oregon commit Audrey Thompson and an awe-inspiring 3-goal, 10-point performance from Cincinnati commit Chloe Page. Laney Owens added 4 goals of her own, while Flagler commit Maddie Van Den Bossche found her way to 5 points in the victory. Goaltender Sarah McKallip saved an outstanding 7 of 13 shots she faced posting a .538 save percentage behind a stout Trojan defense led by Monmouth commit Katie Rich.
Anderson followed up the win by welcoming Westlake to Calhoun field for a rematch of one of the country’s best matchups last season. Unlike last time though, this was not a close game. The Chaps were led like lambs to the slaughter to a blowout loss in which the Trojans never trailed. High Point commit Harper Jones’s 5 goals and Page’s 7-point outing led Anderson to a 15-4 victory that was even more dominating than the score suggests. Westlake was held without a goal well into the game as Anderson took a 13-0 lead into the half, Dartmouth commit Mia Jensen was shut down and scored just twice, Jillian Murphy outplayed Jensen on the draw, and the Trojans thoroughly destroyed the Chaps.
After scoring 25 points over three games (she had 6 goals and 8 points against Dripping Springs), Page was named USA Lacrosse’s High School Player of the Week for the South region. This was a huge honor, and Chloe is the second Anderson player to win the award as Annie Small won it once last spring.
With a 7-0 start, the Trojans found themselves ranked #11 nationally in yesterday’s edition of the public school girls’ lax rankings by USA Lacrosse. They were also rated the top public school team in the entirety of the South. While these rankings don’t take into account this week’s loss to St. Mike’s, they’re incredibly promising and prove the national impact this year’s squad is making.
Lacrosse is a sport dominated by prestigious programs in the Northeast, as virtually the entire national top 25 are schools (both private and public) from states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Additionally, 12 of the top 13 public schools in the country hail from the same states, the only outlier being our very own Anderson Trojans.
The mountain of hard work it takes a team from Austin, Texas, much less one that’s been around for just 5 seasons, to find its way into the national spotlight of high school lacrosse is almost insurmountable. I say almost because well, this team did it. Anderson Girls’ Lax is like something we’ve never seen in this sport, an outlier among outliers, and with games left against Hockaday, Torrey Pines (Cali.), and La Jolla (Cali.), they’ll have the chance to continue to prove that it doesn’t matter where you’re from.
As always, keep it here at Go Trojans Go for the latest news, scores, and updates surrounding Anderson Girls’ Lacrosse and the rest of Trojan Athletics.
