Medfield Girls' Lacrosse Team Draws Fourth Seed in State Tourney

The girls' lacrosse team's 13-5 regular season earned the Warriors the fourth seed in this year's MIAA Division 2 South Sectional State Tournament and a preliminary round bye. 

Medfield will open its state tournament play at home in the first round next Wednesday (May 30) at 4 p.m. against the winner of the Hull vs. Bourne preliminary round game.

No matter who Medfield's next opponent will be, the Warriors are excited to be ending the regular season with some momentum – winners of three straight and seven out of their last 10.

"We are turning it on at the right time," said senior captain Natalie Gill. "We are starting to work well as a team, especially in the last few games, you can see us working hard from the beginning to the end."

Senior captains Emily Zelvor and Abby McQuillan said the team has been able to find its stride at the right time because of its chemistry.

"I think we’ve definitely started to figure out each other’s strengths and working towards that and our play has gotten much stronger," said Zlevor. "We’ve been cleaning [our] play up more."

Said McQuillan: "We are definitely meshing as a team and as the season goes along we are getting stronger and stronger. We just got to keep working hard in practice."

McQuillan added the Warriors' depth has been a key strength to the team's success this season.

"We have a lot of depth and we trust all of our teammates," she said.

Medfield head coach Jason Heim agreed with McQuillan's assessment.

"There really is no weak spot on the team and there’s going to be someone open that’s going to be able to do something," Heim said. "Each of these players has the confidence in the next one over to give them the ball. They’re not afraid to share it, we are getting better in transition, our offense is balanced. That’s the big key."

Heim is confident his team's depth coupled with the leadership of his three captains and Sarah Honan's play in net will make Medfield a tough out in this year's tourney.

"Abby McQuillan has been our quarterback, she’s very unselfish and has taken over that role that a captain had last year," Heim said. "Emily Zlevor is a finesse, fancy player. She can score on anybody and it’s difficult to stop her. Natalie Gill can be so dominant on the draws. Sarah Honan has had some huge games for us. She’s come out and had some game-ending saves. She’s been huge and it’s such a momentum changer."

Outlook on the MIAA D2 South Sectional Field:

Heim had this to say about the rest of the field in the Division 2 South Sectional bracket:

"There’s definitely a core group," Heim said. "Hopkinton is the defending state champs, Norwell has been our Achilles heal, they seem to knock us out every year. Even though their record isn’t great, they went out and played all the top teams. Duxbury is another one that is usually right up there but you can’t leave out Ashland and Dover-Sherborn and some of these other South shore teams too that have some talent and you never know what can happen on any given day."

Heim added that the challenges in the state tournament go beyond the South sectional bracket.

"Getting out of the South will be difficult and then you still have one of the top teams in the state in Winchester from the North," he said.

But as Gill says, Medfield will be focusing on one game at a time in hopes of making the most of the seniors' last state tournament run.

"We are going to work hard and take it one game at a time," Gill said. "We're going to give it our all, especially the seniors because you never know when it will be your last game."

McQuillan and Heim added the team is "excited" to get the postseason started.

"We’re really excited to get going into tournament," McQuillan said.

Said Heim: "Excited for the tournament and we’ll see what happens."

Here's a look at the seedings for the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional bracket. To view the complete bracket, click here.

1. Duxbury (13-4-2)
2. Sandwich (15-2-1)
3. Hopkinton (13-4-2)
4. Medfield (13-5-0)
5. Norwell (12-7-0)
6. Apponequet (18-0-0)
7. Scituate (15-5-1)
8. Nauset (16-4-0)
9. Archbishop Williams (18-2-0)
10. Ursuline (15-4-0)
11. Ashland (12-5-1)
12. Cohassett (10-4-2)
13. Hull (13-4-0)
14. Dover Sherborn (8-7-3)
15. Foxboro (10-7-1)
16. Canton (9-8-0)
17. Nantucket (9-9-0)
18. Martha's Vineyard (8-1-7)
19. Hanover (8-8-0)
20. Bourne (8-7-3)
21. Cape Cod Academy (7-6-1)