Ella had a big tournament this weekend, which wrapped up her first year in Club Lacrosse for Integrity on the 2031 team.
Time to get silly!
Great friends on and off the field.
Ella is famous for her hats. She has several she rotates through and she wears them to practices and games and everyone loves them.
Ella had a great season! She plays Middie and loved doing the draws, running the field, checking and going in for the shot. Her team won all four games this weekend and Ella scored something like 10-12 goals during the tournament. They made it to the Championship and went crazy! Sadly, they lost by one goal in the Championship game, but they all had a blast this weekend. She loves to play, she's super competitive and so much fun to watch!
I just saw this on Integrity's Social Media feed.... my Ella!
While Dave was with Ella at her lacrosse tournament in Cecil County, Maryland (and Lacey was having a sleepover/birthday celebration weekend with her friends and Tanner was at a Scout campout), I was with Riley in New Egypt, New Jersey at the Lax for the Cure Tournament.
Last year, we stayed at a hotel right next to a street called Butts Avenue, with the crossroad of Cemetery Lane. Gianna and Riley laughed about it all weekend, so we had to do a drive by again this year to snap another pic!
Lax for the Cure is a HUGE tournament with teams from all over coming to play each other. It's also a big fundraiser for breast cancer, which is why a lot of the teams get custom made uniforms made in pink just for this tournament. And just do all things pink all weekend.
Riley is #34 in the top right.
My favorite little Middie
Getting ready
Pink goggles, pink uniform and pink ribbon "tattoo".... she's all set!
But along with all the fun, these girls played some serious lacrosse against some stiff competition.
Riley played some of the best lacrosse I've ever seen her play. And I felt so grateful for her healthy, able body. At this time last year, she was just recovering from a serious ankle injury and had just been cleared to start playing again. She was very tentative and I don't even remember if she scored. This year, she came out on fire and scored five goals in the first game! She followed that up with another 2 goals in the next game and then sealed the deal with another goal in the 3rd game and another in the 4th. She was fast and strong and I was so grateful to see her play in this tournament the way that I know she can play. They beat the Long Island Jesters, then Monster Elite (they have branches in Rochester, Syracuse and Boston), then Long Island Top Guns and then we played Heroes Green (our toughest competition). We lost to Heroes Green 5-7, but we won so handedly against the first three teams that we earned a spot in the Quarterfinals! We played AIM in the Quarterfinals and won that too! So then we advanced to the Semifinals. In the Semifinals, it was tied 2-2 and then right when time was up, a girl charged our player, but they called it as a shooting space violation instead of a charge, which gave her a free shot at goal, which she got and we lost 2-3. It was a tough loss. But the team played great, Riley played great and they made it all the way to the Semifinals against some of the toughest competition in the county. Way to go Maryland United 2029 East Team!
We also had a little downtime in between games and happened to be 10 miles up the road from Princeton University, so my friend Lauren and I went over to the campus yesterday afternoon and explored.
We saw several weddings.... who knew Princeton Campus was such a popular wedding venue?
And then it was back for more lacrosse!
I somehow made it in this pic front and center 😜
Love my girl and for all the bonding time we had together this weekend (minus the time I lost it on her when we got all the way to our hotel in New Jersey - an almost three hour drive - and realized that Riley forgot her cleats at home. Miraculously, even though it was 8:30pm, one of our team members had not left Maryland yet and Dave was able to run the cleats over to his house and he brought them up with him to save the day!)
Off to play in the Quarterfinals!
Pic I got of them right after winning the Quarterfinals, which advanced them to the Semifinals.
Ella is now done with Lacrosse for the season, while Riley still has one more week. But either way, it's wrapping up for both of them and I'm so grateful for the improvement in their skill and for the great coaching they are both receiving.
And since this weekend coincided with Father's Day, I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to my Dad and Dave and Larry and to all the amazing dads who make the world a better place.
