Woburn Girls Lacrosse makes history

by Mairead O’Riordan



The Woburn Girls Lacrosse team head off to the tournament
 after their winning game against Lexington.

photo courtesy of Nicole Wackrow 

After coming out of a season like the one the Woburn Girls Lacrosse team had in 2013, ending in 2-14-1, nobody expected the team to go as far as they did this year.  Starting off this year’s season with a wining streak, the lacrosse team, also known as WUGLAX, nearly shocked everyone.

            Beating Lexington was one of the team’s biggest accomplishments because in past years Lexington was a team that they could never defeat.  Playing them twice in their season this year, the second win was the one that brought the WUGLAX team into tournament. 

The first game of the tournament was Woburn, the twelfth seeded team, versus the fifth seeded team, Danvers.  The first half of the first tournament game did not look so good for the WUGLAX team, leaving them down 11-5 at halftime.  The halftime speech given to the girls by their coach Maggie Meagher made them realize that if they did not do something to quickly catch up in the second half, then their lacrosse season would have ended right there on the Danvers field.  Attitudes were changed and the second half was nothing but hard work and dedication.  It was goal after goal for Woburn and the Danvers’s lead was quickly diminished.  With 2:43 left on the clock, the game was tied 12-12 when sophomore Morgan Bishop got a yellow card, leaving Woburn man down for two minutes.  Junior Marilyn McCall kept the ball down the Danvers end for the whole two minutes, running back and forth just to run the clock and wait until they were back in full strength.  As soon as Bishop got back on to the field, McCall ran straight to the net making the score 13-12, Woburn.  When Danvers won the draw, there was only about 30 seconds left on the clock, but Woburn won back the possession and ran down the field until the game ended. 

The Woburn Girls Lacrosse team won their first tournament game, kicking out the number five seed, causing it to be the biggest upset in the D1 North tournament games.  Not only was this the biggest upset, but it also made WUGLAX history seeing as Woburn has never made it past the first tournament game.  This win got the attention of many people around Woburn and everyone seemed to be congratulating the team on their victory.

Their season was not over yet, and they were scheduled to play Masconomet High School as their second tournament game.  The team coordinated a fan bus to come support them at their game.  This game did not go as hoped and the Woburn lacrosse team got knocked out of tournament, being defeated by Masconomet, 17-2.

Although their last game was not how they had pictured it would end, there are many positive things that this team can look back on and be proud of.  Their record improved significantly from last year, they made it into tournament and even made history.  This team has paved the way for future Woburn Girls Lacrosse teams and they will no longer be considered the underdogs or the team that will be easy to beat!