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# Championship the first for Kearsarge girls lacrosse after handful of tries
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/championship-first-kearsarge-girls-lacrosse-handful-tries/
- Published: 2017-06-14T14:39:51.000Z
- Updated: 2017-06-14T14:39:51.000Z
- Description: Before the Division III girls lacrosse playoffs started, Anya Nowicki knew that her and her Kearsarge High School teammates had what it would take to get back to the championship game. The question was would the Cougars be able to pull it off.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division III-IV, championship, Division III, girls lacrosse, Kearsarge, NH High School Sports Insider, playoffs, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Before the Division III girls lacrosse playoffs started, Anya Nowicki knew that her and her Kearsarge High School teammates had what it would take to get back to the championship game.

The question was would the Cougars be able to pull it off.

Kearsarge was coming off a runner-up finish in 2016, when it fell in the D3 championship game to Laconia. There were key players lost to graduation, including five starters, and new players added to the varsity squad, but the Cougars were hopeful they would find a way back to at least the semifinals.

But then Kearsarge dropped a couple of close games - including ones to Laconia, Bow and Derryfield - and at the end of the regular season, the Cougars were 11-4 and the sixth seed in the playoffs. That meant a quarterfinal game against the Sachems, who handed the Cougars their worst loss of the season.

"I told them coming in, we may be the sixth seed, but this is anybody's game," Kearsarge coach Hillary Grimes said. "You look at the scores and how we played in the regular season, it could have gone either way. It was important for us to not focus on the past and keep moving forward."

And even with just three seniors on this year's roster, there was the experience of last season the Cougars could fall back on if needed.

"We're a team that knows how to get (to the final)," Nowicki said. "As a freshman (in 2014), the senior goalie graduated early, so I was thrust into the program. Right off the bat, I was told we had already been to the semifinals five times and we had to get there (again). Going to at least the semis has been part of my career. You get used to it."

Making the semifinals wasn't the only thing Kearsarge was used to. Including the 2016 loss to Laconia, the Cougars had been to the D3 final four times and come up short, running into a string of teams that dominated the division.

The Cougars reached the title game in 2009-10, only to fall to Hollis Brookline - which went 31-0 within the division those two years - both times. In 2012, Kearsarge finished as the runner-up to a Windham team that went 17-0 in its second season as a varsity program.

And last year, Laconia grabbed a 14-13 win in the final to finish off a stretch of 23 wins in 26 games, once again, leaving Kearsarge with the second-place plaque.

"We always look at that blank space (in the gym) and say this year, we're filing that blank space under champions," senior Maicy Hansen said. "We had some very good seniors and we knew we were going to have to step it up and come together as a team."

When the Cougars drew the Sachems again in the quarterfinals, Nowicki admitted it was a little concerning.

"Being the sixth seed was almost scary, to think that we might not get (to the final)," she said. "We'd been getting progressively better throughout the season, and we finally clicked during the quarterfinals."

Kearsarge came back from a 4-1 halftime deficit to beat Laconia 7-6 in overtime, and in the semifinals, the Cougars avenged another loss from the regular season, beating Bow 8-4.

In the championship game, Kearsage fell behind again, trailing Derryfield 7-2 in the first half before coming back to make it a one-goal game at the break. The Cougars then held Derryfield to just one second half goal in winning the program's first championship.

"I think it really shows the determination our team has and the fight that is in them," Grimes said. "We can get down by five goals and still fight back to win the championship. I think that's been a trend throughout the years for Kearsarge. I think we were a little underestimated, but we kind of thrive in that situation.

"They (the seniors) have worked hard for the program for four years and they can always look up at that banner and know that's their year and the first year we were able to bring that trophy back to Kearsarge."

And with seven juniors and eight sophomores returning next year, the Cougars could be the next ones in line for a run of D3 championships.

"With Jackie (DeAngelis) and Leslie (Angus) and Lara (Stokes), they are the seniors next year," Nowicki said. "We have a huge feeder program, so we always have amazing freshmen. I think that's what leads to our success. These girls are taught and shown what Kearsarge lacrosse can do."