April 30, 2024
East Ridge Girls Lacrosse Concludes Historic Season with Heartfelt Farewell
By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge Girls Lacrosse Concludes Historic Season with Heartfelt Farewell
It’s the end of the road for East Ridge High School girls lacrosse team who lost to Hagerty 22-5 in the Regional Semifinal game this evening. Although they lost, this team made us so proud this year. The Lady Knights became the first Lake County team to win an FHSAA Playoff game. While the season ending stings, this team will be remembered for a long time. There are still very few girls lacrosse programs in Lake & Sumter County. They have put girls lacrosse on the map and that is something to be celebrated.
While few girls lacrosse teams at the high school level exist in this part of Florida, for a girls team lacrosse team to have success, it takes a dedicated coach, players, and community to support it. East Ridge High certainly had plenty of support and they represented Lake County with such pride, and we enjoyed every moment of it.
(The East Ridge High Girls Lacrosse team celebrated some major milestones this year.)
That goes for all programs including South Lake High, Lake Minneola High, and Leesburg High who also have girls lacrosse programs. We love to see our Lake & Sumter county programs succeed and this was the first time a Lake County team made it this far for girls lacrosse! That is something worth celebrating.
The season saw goalie Grace Meyer become the all-time leading saves leader with over 100 saves made in a season. We also had sophomore Kalina Johnson score a team record in goals scored. In just 2 years, Johnson has scored over 150 goals for East Ridge High. She is fast becoming one of the best Girls Lacrosse players in Lake County history.
The entire team needs to be honored but we also need to give a shout out to the coaching staff. Head coach Sarah Klosterman has truly believed in this program since the beginning. Coach Klosterman is taking East Ridge girls Lacrosse to new heights. They have won district championships. They nearly won their 4th district championship in a row this year but fell just short.
(A win the changed the direction of not just East Ridge High School Lacrosse but Lake County Lacrosse. The Lady Knights pose together after becoming the first lacrosse program in Lake County history to win a FHSAA Playoff game last week against West Orange.)
Winning an FHSAA Playoff game against the same team that beat them in the district championship was extra sweet that being West Orange. It was only natural for East Ridge to get that first playoff win against West Orange last week.
Hagerty has one of the best girls lacrosse programs in the nation. They are ranked 5th in the nation and 3rd in the state of Florida. That did not matter to East Ridge High who came out and played with pride. They represented Lake County with their heads held up high. The Lady Knights have a ton to build upon along with some great players returning next season.
We do want to wish the senior class well. Ten seniors are graduating including Lola Pietrowicz, Reese Phipps, Ava Pike, Olivia Wolters, Bree Faille, Haziel Tafur, Emily Hopkins, Bella Ehlers, Kajsa Curcuru, and Lucero Carrasquilla. Best of luck to each one of them on their future endeavors.
Congratulations on this history making East Ridge High Girls Lacrosse Team. What a season it was!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
