Windham girls lacrosse knocks off Dover to get first D1 playoff win

DOVER – After winning the Division II championship last June, the Windham High School girls lacrosse team moved up to Division I this spring and found out from the get-go how much a leap in competition it was.

That moment came in March, when the Jaguars left The Hampshire Dome in Milford, humbled following a preseason jamboree against other Division I teams.

“We got crushed,” first-year Windham coach Samantha Murray said. “It was a wake-up call. It’s hard competition, so showing them early on what they needed to do to get to was really important and as the season progressed, we got those wins we needed to win in order to get into the playoffs.”

Windham’s 6-3 start was enough to curtail a six-game losing streak to end the regular season, as the ninth-seeded Jaguars broke their skid with Tuesday afternoon’s 10-5 victory over No. 8 Dover in the first round of the Division I tournament.

“They won a championship last year in D2 but D1  is a whole different ball game,” Murray said. “Winning those games we needed to win to get into the playoffs was really crucial. I’m really proud of what they’ve done."

Now the Jaguars face the ultimate test when they travel to defending champion and top-seeded Portsmouth (17-0) in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Clippers won the regular season matchup, 17-4.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” Murray said. "We’ve just got to play hard. We’ve got a really young team and we’re just excited to play against that competition."

Windham (7-9) jumped out to 4-1 lead after Anna Hartman and Darby Madden (five goals) each scored two goals apiece. Hartmann opened up the scoring 1:29 into the game and Madden bookended the start by scoring with 21.6 seconds left in the first quarter.

After Madden opened up the second quarter with a pair of goals, Ella Gallinelli scored with six seconds left to give Windham a 7-2 halftime cushion.

Madden will be attending Harvard University in the fall and wasn’t recruited, but she may give it a shot when the lacrosse season rolls around.

“We were really excited coming into the game. We thought it was going to be a really good matchup,” Madden said. “It was just coming in with a lot of energy that really helped us.”

Madden, Sophie Manchester and Addie Filadero are the only seniors on the team that helped lead some promising young talent. Manchester will play field hockey at Bentley College next year.

“Our composure as a team had really developed throughout the season to work together in high stress situations,” Manchester said. “It’s been really great to see some of the underclassmen step up because we are really young. To get everyone touches on the varsity field has been really big for us.”

First-year Dover coach Gabbie Haug was pleased with how the team responded to her and with the way they played better in the second half on Tuesday.

“We were asleep in the first half in the first half," Haug said. “We had a lot of ups and downs, but I’m really proud of these girls, win or lose.”