By Chris Goldberg
TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 4/2/17

The Loyola Academy (IL) girls’ lacrosse team had something to prove this weekend.

The Ramblers – the 8-time defending Illinois state champions – have for years had the task of proving that Midwest teams can compete with the Mid-Atlantic powers; and coach John Dwyer has always scheduled as many top teams as possible. This weekend his squad won three of four games in three days and nearly knocked off the No. 2 team in the nation, host St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes at its annual Spring Fling.

In fact, the Ramblers (9-1) were convinced they should have beaten St. Stephen’s, but after making a stop at the famous Iwo Jima Memorial, they left Washington D.C. disappointed to lose but pleased with their performance.

“We planted a little bit of a flag out here in D.C. ourselves,” Dwyer said before his team flew back home to Chicago. “We may have opened some eyes.”

Loyola, ranked No. 20 in last week’s Summit Lacrosse North America Girls’ Rankings, opened its trip Friday with an 11-7 win over Georgetown Visitation (D.C.), which was tied for 20th in the rankings with the Ramblers. On Saturday at the Spring Fling, Loyola opened by ending a 39-game win streak by two-time defending 6A Virginia state champion Robinson, 16-8.

Then came the St. Stephen’s game. Loyola dominated the draw, but fell, 16-14 to the vaunted Saints (9-0), who scored many of their goals on 8-meter shots.

“They (the Loyola players) were mad; they felt like it was a game they should have won,” said Dwyer. “They were disappointed, but I was just proud. Our defense and goaltending was outstanding.”

Today, Loyola woke up and routed previously undefeated Stone Ridge (MD), 21-10.

“Our team did a phenomenal job representing Loyola, and a phenomenal job representing lacrosse in the Chicago area and the Midwest,” said Dwyer. “There is a lot of good lacrosse in the Midwest and we did a pretty good job.”

Dwyer, who has nine Division I signees in his senior class and 12 D1 commits overall, said 2017 goalie Delaney Oliveira (American) keyed a 7-0 run to spark the victory over Georgetown Visitation. Brennan Dwyer (Northwestern, the coach’s daughter) won 16 of the 20 draws and added 3 goals and 2 assists while Katie Enrietto (Notre Dame) had 2 goals, 5GBs, 2DCs, and Caroline Witkowski (Michigan) added 2G, 2A, 3CTs, 3GBs.

Against Robinson, Brennan had 5G, 2CTs, 2GBs and 9DCs while Witkowski had 3G, and Colleen Huffman (Yale) 4A. In the loss to St. Stephen’s, Dwyer collected 15 draws, 5g, 1A 4GBs, Madison Kane (Marquette) 5G, 1A, Enrietto 1G, 3DCs and Mary Dooley (Marquette) 3G.

In today’s win, Dwyer had 16 draws, 3G, 1A, Kane 5G, 2A, 3DCs, Enrietto 1G, 1A, 4GBs, 3DCs, Witkowski 3G, Huffman 3G, 2A, Clarke 3G and 2018 Brynn Holohan (Arizona State) 2G.

Loyola’s schedule does not relent. The Ramblers will play defending Ohio state champion Upper Arlington Saturday at the University of Notre Dame and return to Notre Dame April 29th to meet defending Michigan state champion Rockford and Michigan’s Cranford.

In between Loyola travels to Colorado to meet Denver East, Colorado Academy, California’s St. Ignatius Prep, Arapahoe and Cherry Creek.