Lady Lancer Field Hockey Trio Collects All-State Honors
Chris Pantazis
The 2015 Division I field hockey season wound up being quite productive and even somewhat historic for the Londonderry High Lady Lancers. And in the wake of the fine campaign, the LHS contingent had three of its standouts recognized with all-state honors.
Senior midfielder Hannah McGrath and junior goalie Rachel Simkevich were both named Division I first-team selections by the state’s field hockey coaches, and senior back Hannah Cohen garnered second-team all-state recognition.
Goals weren’t an easy commodity to come by for veteran coach Laura Federico’s LHS crew, but the locals tallied a 7-5-2 regular season record and then advanced as far as the D-I final four for the first time since their championship season of 2008 in enjoying a memorable campaign.
McGrath, who will attend and play field hockey at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., next year, played a vital role on the Lady Lancers’ offense throughout the campaign.
And nobody on the LHS squad was more vital than star goaltender Simkevich, who was a major reason the Lady Lancers made it as far as they did. She was at the heart of the squad’s seven shutouts and frustrated the opposition at a great many turns.
And senior defender Cohen also played an important role in the stinginess of the Londonderry defense backboned by Simkevich. She will be playing collegiate field hockey as well but is still in the process of deciding where.
The Lancer crew rolled into its last four regular season matches with a sub-.500 record of 4-5-1, and went undefeated in those final matches with three wins and one tie to surge upward in the contested league standings. The LHS side managed that success scoring only one goal in each game.
Ranked number seven going into the D-I tournament, the Lady Lancers ended the seasons of number 10 Salem and number two Timberlane (in a big upset) before being felled by the third-ranked Pinkerton Academy Lady Astros in the semifinals.
As history and fortunes would have it, those arch-rivals from Pinkerton were the opponent when the 2008 LHS field hockey squad won the state championship for coach Marcia Manseau. And coach Manseau was in attendance for the recent D-I semi match.