Fox Lane may be a team to watch out of Division Two. The Foxes held a three-goal halftime lead, but Nyack came back to win 15-13.

Karis Walborn led the Indians with seven goals and two assists, while Caroline Chesterman and Karly Walborn each had three goals. Lindsey Toppe had five goals and two assist and Sammy Tracey had four goals for Fox Lane. 

We’re still waiting on one other score from today — New Rochelle at Bryam Hills. We have four games on the schedule tomorrow: Mamaroneck at Nyack, Greeley at Bronxville, Suffern at Mahopac and Fox Lane at John Jay. Interesting that half these teams (Greeley, Nyack, Fox Lane and John Jay) will have two games played before most teams take the field for the first time.

The girls lacrosse preview came out today in The Journal News, which included three feature stories — Jaimie Morrison and Amanda Trendell hope to win a second state title for Yorktown. Caroline Chesterman hopes to shake off a broken hand and lead Nyack. And Scarsdale looks to continue its impressive rise with some new off-season work.

The preview also provides a glance at the top teams in the section, looks at players to watch in Westchester/Putnam and Rockland, answers three questions about the season.

Now I’d like to hear your thoughts — who will be the top teams and players in the section? The biggest games? The questions you wan’t answered?

The girls lacrosse season got underway today when John Jay beat Greeley 15-9. Casey Bocklet (right, defending) scored seven goals, including the first four of the game, and Katie DeLuca scored four times in the second half for the Indians, who lost to the Quakers last year in the sectional semis. Kelsey Hill scored four times for Greeley, who was only down 7-6 with 17 minutes left before John Jay scored eight straight goals to break the game wide open.

Tomorrow The Journal News preview comes out. There will be features, players to watch and capsules on the top teams. I’ll provide the links when I can, but early risers can got to www.lohud.com/vc for all the stories.

The Section 1 girls lacrosse season gets underway with three games today — Greeley at John Jay, Scarsdale at Greenwich and Wappingers at Kennedy. 

I’ll be in Cross River to see how the Quakers and Indians respond to losing so many great players last year, but feel free to post your thoughts, predictions and score updates on all three games as the day wears on. Also check the comments on the previous post about seeding and be sure to add your thoughts.

The 2009 Empire State Games were originally scheduled for July in the mid-Hudson Valley (Poughkeepsie and Newburgh), and then cancelled after state pulled all $3 million in funding and threatened to charge participants $285 each.

There is still no official word on whether the games would be played elsewhere in the state, but time is clearly running out. This e-mail was sent to Hudson Valley coaches from regional director Frank Intervallo this morning:

Dear friends:

Many of you have been calling asking for information on this year’s Games.  I have not received any official word regarding the status of the 2009 Games, but in view of the fact that the time has passed to start the process, and no direction has come from State Parks on the prospects of holding a viable program this year, the thought that we will have Games for 2009 fades away further and further each day. 

After analyzing every possible scenario, a strong dose of reality has begun to set in.  It is unfair to you to ask you to wait any longer on your decisions for summer plans, as it is to ask venues to hold dates for us for tryouts that may never occur.  At this point, I am releasing you from any obligation to coach at the Games in 2009, and you are free to pursue other opportunities that may come your way for this summer.  If, of course, through some miracle, we are able to hold a program, and you wish to participate, I will certainly welcome your participation, as I will also welcome you back for the 2010 Games.   Also, if you  have made any arrangements with venues for tryouts, I would ask that you please cancel them and release the facility to pursue other options that may be available to them, as well. 

This is a message that I am sure we all hoped would never be sent, but I feel that our only option left at this point is to re-group and begin preparing for the 2010 Games in Buffalo.  While I share your disappointment, I thank you all for your hard work and dedication that you have consistently given to the program, and look forward to working with you again next year.

Regretfully,

Frank

Here’s the breakdown of teams by class. I’ve sorted it by division. Remember, teams from DI will be seeded ahead of DII, and DII ahead of DIII. A few interesting notes: Tappan Zee dropped to Class C by two students. Mamaroneck stayed in B by seven students. Also, remember that the numbers are different for boys and girls lacrosse, so while Harrison, Somers, Nyack and TZ are Class C for girls, they are Class B for boys. Likewise, Mamaroneck is B for girls and A for boys.

Class A (9 teams)

DI: Suffern, North Rockland, Lakeland/Panas, Mahopac

DII: Clarkstown North

DIII: Arlington, Wappingers, White Plains, New Rochelle

Class B (10 teams)

DI: Yorktown, John Jay, Brewster, Greeley, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck

DII: Fox Lane, Ossining, Clarkstown South

DIII: Ursuline

Class C (25 teams)

DI: Nanuet, Pearl River, Nyack, Bronxville, Rye

DII: Tappan Zee, Albertus, Putnam Valley, Somers, North Salem, Edgemont, Harrison, Pelham, Pleasantville, Byram Hills

DIII: Hen Hud, Briarcliff, Kennedy, Sleepy Hollow, Hastings, Ardsley, Irvington, Eastchester, Keio, Blind Brook

The biggest change is that the finals will be held on the turf at Fox Lane. Also, Section 1 champions have a bye into the regional final, where they will host the Section 2/9 winner (likely Section 2) at Lakeland.

One downside to the schedule — all the semifinals will be on the same day, which is really unfortunate for me (who would love to cover more than one semifinal game that day) and any girls lacrosse fans out there (who would love to watch more than one semifinal game). Here’s an idea — instead of packing all the games into one week, take advantage of our bye in the regional semifinals and spread the playoff games through two weeks (Class A semis one day, Class B the next day, etc.). 

Here’s the full postseason schedule:

Seeding meeting May 19

Outbracket Friday, May 21 at higher seeds

Quarterfinals Tuesday, May 26 at higher seeds

Semifinals Thursday, May 28 at higher seeds

Finals Saturday, May 30 at Fox Lane (C 3 p.m., B 5 p.m., A 7 p.m.)

Regional finals June 6 vs. Sect 2/9 winner at Lakeland (4 p.m./6 p.m./8 p.m.)

Semifinals/Finals June 12-13 at SUNY Cortland

Since the top teams are no longer in the same league, there is a new seeding criteria being used this year. 

Teams in Division I will receive automatic entry into the sectional tournament.

Teams in Division II will be eligible if their winning percentage is 40 percent or higher in either league or overall record. Division II teams will be seeded immediately following the Division I teams.

Teams in Division III will be eligible if their winning percentage is 50 percent or higher in their league or overall record.

Here is how teams in each class will be determined:

1) Winning percentage in games generated on the original BOCES schedule (league games and mandatory crossovers). Winning percentages is total number of points (2 for win, 1 for tie) divided by number of games.

2) Tiebreakers head-to-head

3) Total winning percentage against Federation schools

4) Coin flip

Girls lacrosse coach Chad Schindler, who started the Ossining program three years ago, resigned on Monday and has been replaced by Dan Ricci, who reached the sectional championship game in football and girls basketball earlier this year.

Ricci is filling in on an interim basis until the school finds a permanent replacement.

“We’re trying to network as best we can and we’ll see what happens,” athletic director James Dennett said. “It’s not something I wanted to have happen but we have to move on and do what’s best for the kids.”

The fourth-year program has been rising fast. After a winless first season, the team won five games in ‘07 and then went 11-4-1 last year, reaching the postseason for the first time. This year looks promising, too – underclassmen scored 173 of the team’s 201 goals last year, and both goalies were returning. Ossining has also moved up from a developing league to Division II.

It will be interesting to see if the team can find a quality coach so late in the process, and how it will affect what had been a promising beginning for the program.

Colleague Matt Ng watched the Fox Lane-Lakeland/Panas scrimmage yesterday and filed this report. Thanks Matt. If anyone else is out and about this week and wants to share some insight into what they saw, I’m sure we would all appreciate it. I’ll be back later with the class alignments, and the rules for postseason seedings.

There were at least 20-30 fans that braved the below 40 degree weather outside to watch a scrimmage. They are dedicated. About 8 to 10 of them were from Fox Lane, making the trek ..albeit it not a far one….to watch a scrimmage.

Goalie Alex Fitzpatrick played 10 minutes before being spelled out…She’ll be the rock that the Rebels will rely on greatly to continue their success. Fox lane won the majority of faceoffs and ground balls, but ultimately Lakeland/Panas had the firepower to convert when given any opportunity.

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new girls lacrosse season. You’ll notice a lot of changes this year both on the field — completely new leagues and a lot of new faces — and on LoHud. If you’ve followed the fall or winter sports, you’ll notice that we’re taking advantage of new technologies to bring you high school sports, with live video broadcasts and the weekly show Varsity Central Live (click on lohud.com/vcsports4 or lohud.com/vclive for examples).

The newspaper preview won’t come out until the end of next week, but before then I hope to preview the top teams in all three classes, and give you all the information you need as we get ready. In the meantime I’d love to hear your thoughts for who will be the best teams and players in each class. I’ll do my best to post each day from now on, but the point of the blogs is for two-way conversations, so don’t be shy.

For starters, here are the new league alignments. As you can see, the divisions are separated by power, like in the past. But this time the leagues are grouped by geography. It’s a preview of what will take place across all sports (except football) next year, when geography will be the sole criteria. So what does everyone think? Will this be better or worse than the previous alignment?

Division One

League I: Suffern, North Rockland, Nanuet, Pearl River, Nyack

League II: Yorktown, Lakeland/Panas, Mahopac, John Jay, Brewster

League III: Greeley, Scarsdale, Bronxville, Rye, Mamaroneck

Division Two

League I: Tappan Zee, Clarkstown North, Albertus Magnus, Clarkstown South

League II: Fox Lane, Putnam Valley, Somers, North Salem, Ossining

League III: Edgemont, Harrison, Pelham, Pleasantville, Byram Hills

Division Three

League I: Arlington, Hen Hud, Briarcliff, Kennedy, Wappingers

League II: Sleepy Hollow, Hastings, Ardsley, Irvington, Eastchester

League III: White Plains, New Rochelle, Ursuline, Keio, Blind Brook

Note: Each team will play league opponents twice and get crossovers with the teams listed in the same position. For instance, Suffern will play North Rockland, Nanuet, Pearl River and Nyack twice, and crossover with Yorktown and Greeley once, for 10 league games.