Chandler hoping to help keep St. Thomas girls lacrosse on upward trend

Two years ago, the St. Thomas Aquinas High School girls lacrosse team was a program on the rise.

With a handful of solid seniors and a talented sophomore class, the Saints looked like they had the potential to get into the Division III playoffs in 2019, and that's just what they did.

The stage was set for St. Thomas to continue to improve, with those sophomores gaining more experience and growing closer together as juniors, with a chance to be a contender before really becoming one the following year.

Things obviously didn't go as planned.

But despite not getting that junior season of lacrosse in, the Saints are still on the path that began two years ago, and really, even before then, thanks to their seniors, including Brooke Chandler.

"We have a bunch of seniors who I have been playing with since middle school, who I love them," Chandler said. "I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re going to be really successful.

"It was definitely difficult missing out on it, especially having it be a lot of (the players) main sport. I think we knew we’d be able to play again eventually. Looking forward to that, knowing we still had goals we wanted to accomplish, and stuff like that, it’s been really motivating."

St. Thomas was 9-6 in 2019 and earned the sixth seed in the D3 playoffs before falling to Derryfield in the quarterfinals, averaging almost 13 goals scored per game. Not only will the Saints be looking to replace two senior classes from the last time they took the field, they'll also have a new coach, as Jill Muir was set to take over the position a year ago.

While Muir hasn't yet had the opportunity to coach Chandler, she's seen enough of her senior attack to know what the Saints are getting when practices begin March 29.

"She’s a great leader," Muir said. "Offensively, she has a ton of stick skills. You can see that just from watching her in indoors. Her shooting and ability to score are definitely something that we’re hoping to capitalize on this year.

"I feel like she’s constantly trying to improve her game."

Chandler has always focused on that, even while participating in other sports. She was an all-state performer for the St. Thomas field hockey team in the fall, and after the indoor track season was limited this winter, she joined the girls hockey team and was a member of the team that reached the championship game.

But no matter what other sports she tried, lacrosse was always the one at the top of Chandler's list.

"My older brother (Kyle) played before me, so that kind of inspired me to play," she said. "I would go and watch his games, so that made me really want to go and play. I did all kinds of sports through middle school. I played them all, but I just really like lacrosse, the way the game is. It’s really a team sport, you can’t do anything by yourself and the game is so fast-paced."

Chandler plans to continue playing beyond this year, having signed a letter of intent with Bryant University, a school her new high school with which her new high school coach is quite familiar.

"I didn’t play lacrosse, but I did go to the school," Muir said. "I’m hoping she loves it there."

Having already committed to Bryant as a junior, Chandler felt fortunate that she was already done the recruiting process by the time the COVID-19 pandemic started.

"I was grateful for that," she said. "I started the recruiting process freshman year and I went to all these clinics and camps to see what I wanted. The fall of junior year, I went to Bryant and I just loved it immediately. I love the campus, the coaches, the players, everything. I wanted to go there and I’m so excited to be going there."