As the regular season winds down, the Pioneers’ level of competition is ramping up to a higher level, which may be timed just right in terms of being ready for the tournament.
Last week, the Pioneers faced their toughest stretch of the season with games against 2023 Division 3 state champion Newburyport, 2023 Division 4 runner-up Ipswich, and 2023 Division 4 semifinalist Manchester-Essex.
While the team lost all three games, head coach Christina Serra, nonetheless, loves the way the Pioneers are playing heading into the tournament.
“This was definitely the hardest week of our season, but I’ve never seen our girls play better,” Serra said. “In past years, we’ve had a hard time scoring any goals against these teams, but this week we were able to play competitively and score. Against Ipswich, we scored only seven goals in the first game and were able to score 13. This was also our second time playing Manchester-Essex and they beat us by 10 goals the first time, but Friday night we kept the gap at three, which shows such progress for our team.”
As of Monday’s updated MIAA power rankings, the Pioneers (8-10) were sitting pretty despite having a sub-.500 record with a No. 14 ranking, guaranteeing the team at least one home game in the tournament.
The Pioneers close out the regular season with a non-league road game at Melrose Thursday at 4:30 and will wait for the release of the tournament brackets on May 29.
Manchester-Essex 7
Lynnfield 4
Youth was on display Friday at Manchester-Essex as four freshmen accounted for Lynnfield’s goals against the Division 4 No. 5 Hornets.
Hayden Valiton (assist, caused turnover, ground ball, 5 draws), Jordan Calichman (draw), Maeve Wertz (caused turnover, ground ball) and Ava Damiani did the honors for the Pioneers. Lily White notched an assist.
Junior captain Taylor Valiton (3 caused turnovers, ground ball, draw) and junior Clara Caulfield (2 caused turnovers, ground ball) also contributed.
Senior captain Casey Flynn made eight saves.
“Manchester-Essex’s goalie is hard to beat and is a University of North Carolina Division 1 commit and their draw is committed to Loyola, so I could not be more proud of our effort and am excited for our future.”
Newburyport 18
Lynnfield 10
Thursday the defending Division 3 No. 2 ranked Clippers came to town, giving the Pioneers their biggest test of the year.
“It was our best game of the season and I was so proud of the way they played against our toughest opponent of the season,” Serra said. “We didn’t win, but they played an unbelievable game. We’ve never scored that many goals against Newburyport before and we had the lead twice and held them pretty well until the last quarter. I consider scoring 10 goals against them a win for our team as they are a phenomenal team with four Division 1 commits.”
The game was up for grabs heading into the second half with the Clippers clinging to a 10-7 lead. But Newburyport stepped up over the final two quarters, outscoring the Pioneers 8-3 to seal the victory.
Taylor Valiton and Hayden Valiton were all over the stat column with four goals and one assist each. Taylor added two caused turnovers, a ground ball and six draw controls, while Hayden added four caused turnovers, one ground ball and three draw controls.
Calichman also had a strong game with two goals, one assist,a caused turnover and ground ball. Wertz was a force on defense with four caused turnovers and three ground balls.
Caulfield (caused turnover, 2 ground balls), senior captain Maddie Mastrangelo (2 assists), Damiani (assist, ground ball), senior Keely Briggs (2 ground balls), senior Quinn Lavey (caused turnover, ground ball) and junior Kayla Santo (caused turnover, ground ball) also contributed.
Flynn (3 saves) took the hard-luck loss in net.
Ipswich 20
Lynnfield 13
At home Wednesday, the Pioneers couldn’t find a way to recover from a 12-7 halftime deficit. Taylor and Hayden Valiton (assist, 12 draws) led the offense with five goals each, while Damiani also had a big day with three goals and three assists. Flynn made seven saves. Defensively, Wertz (6 ground balls, caused turnover) and Caulfield (3 caused turnovers, 2 ground balls) had strong games.
