'We Don't Accept Losing'

When you’re state champs 10 years in a row, dominating the competition year after year, you don’t hope to win. You expect to win.

Even after falling short of a state title the past two years——the Moorestown girls’ lacrosse team comes into this season with their sights again firmly fixed on the title, a title they owned for 10 years before a surprise loss to Shawnee in 2010.

“Expectations are always high in this program, regardless of who’s coming back,” said head coach Deanna Knobloch. “This team is very hungry because we expect to win. We don’t accept losing. It’s not an option for us.”

The team finished the 2011 season with a 22-4 record, winning the Group 3 state championship, before falling to Ridgewood in the state title game.

Knobloch lost four starters at the end of the season: Bridget Bianco, two-time All-American goalie; South Jersey offensive player of the year Nikki Shapiro; and defenders Erin McAfee and Sheri Fauvell. But there’s always turnover, and Knobloch said she has a strong group of varsity letter winners on this year’s squad, including 10 seniors.

“We have a ton of experience,” she said. “All these girls have played at a high level. It’s much easier to build a team around them.”

Knobloch will lean on two of those players, captains Stephanie Toy and Haleigh Dalmass, as the team pursues another state title.

The coach described Toy as “one of the toughest, most relentless players we have ever coached,” and Dalmass as a “workhorse who never gives up, never stops.”

“They’re both extremely athletic,” Knobloch said. “We’re expecting great things from them this season.”

It’s more than just great players that give Moorestown girls’ lacrosse its pedigree (seven state titles prior to the 2000-2009 run and a 399-29-4 record during Knobloch’s 21-year tenure) though.

Where is the team’s success derived from? There’s no easy answer, the coach said, “other than that it’s a long answer. It’s not one thing. There’s many variables that go into making a team successful. It starts with the players, the parents, the community, coaches, all those things.”

And it’s also a mindset, Knobloch said, that leads to winning. All the girls are aware of the team’s reputation and they feel it’s their duty to uphold it.

“Success breeds success … They just want to continue the winning tradition the preceding teams have set,” she said. “They want to be the team that wins (the state title) back.”

The girls open their season at 11 a.m. Saturday, at home, against Strath Haven. One of their first big rivalry games is April 14 at Washington Township, and they face Shawnee at home on April 21.

For the full schedule, visit the team’s website at moorestownglax.com.