Lacrosse

Northeast got a pair of goals from Veasna Kim to dethrone defending champion Washington, 6-3, in the Public League boys' lacrosse championship game yesterday, held at Simon Gratz. The Vikings led, 2-0, after the first quarter and never trailed. Scott McGrath had 11 saves in goal. Before a capacity crowd of 1,200 at Cabrini College, Carl Walrath scored twice in the final 40 seconds to give Haverford School a 5-4 win over Malvern Prep in the championship game of the Inter-Ac Invitational.

A Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology freshman died a week after being hit in the chest with a lacrosse ball. Todd Bernhardt, 19, was hit by an errant shot taken by a teammate during a routine drill before a game against Springfield (Mass.) College at Penn's Franklin Field on March 10. Bernhardt went into cardiac arrest, was revived by medical technicians and taken to the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. His condition deteriorated in the past week and he died at the hospital on Saturday night.

Former West Chester East standout Susanne Atkins closed out her Georgetown lacrosse career by being named to the Division I Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association all-American second team. She also was on the all-South Region first team selected by the IWLCA. Atkins, a nursing major who also played field hockey, was a tough defender for the Hoyas, usually marking the opposition's top-scoring midfielder. She started every game this year for the Hoyas, who were 11-6.

Cabrini College lacrosse player Casey Grugan broke an NCAA Division III record yesterday by scoring a goal in his 55th consecutive game. Grugan, a senior from Ridley, scored three goals and had an assist in a 16-7 season-opening victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. Grugan's record-setting goal came in the first quarter. "I was just looking to get it out of the way," he said. "I knew their goalie would come out hard on me, so I hesitated and was able to slip it past him. It was great to get it done early in the game.

All-South Jersey Girls' Lacrosse Teams First team Position   Player   School   Yr.    Attack   Nicole Troost   Shawnee   Jr.    Attack   Katie Gill   Washington Twp.   Sr.    Attack   Nikki Shapiro   Moorestown   Sr.    Midfield   Stephanie Toy   Moorestown   Jr.    Midfield   Erin Waller   Washington Twp.   Sr.    Midfield   Kristen Kocher   Shawnee   Sr.   ...

Swimming or lacrosse? Meghan Walters had to choose between sports in high school, and it looks like she made a wise decision. Walters, who recently completed her senior year at Penn Charter, has been chosen as an alternate to the United States Women's Lacrosse Under-19 Select Team. That squad will play for a world championship Sept. 4-11 in Perth, Australia. And she has signed to play collegiately at Duke. Walters' selection capped a stunning, two-year rise for a player who as recently as her sophomore year, was considered a novice.

West Chester, ranked No. 7 in NCAA Division II women's lacrosse, jumped out to leads of 7-0 and 10-1 and defeated host Slippery Rock, 14-4, Saturday in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game. West Chester (4-0) got three goals from Nicole Pyle (Henderson High). Stephanie Pasquale slugged a grand slam to lead Temple (12-11, 2-0) to a 10-5 win at Charlotte (13-13, 0-2), in an Atlantic Ten softball game. Julius Twyman (Coatesville) won his singles match, 8-0, then teamed with Yoann Pham for a doubles win as Chestnut Hill (ranked No. 7 in the region in NCAA Division II)

Shawn Wert was recruited by Washington and Lee as a tennis player. But a problem arose when the Great Valley High graduate entered the Lexington, Va., school as a freshman: She didn't want to play tennis anymore. "I was pretty much burned out," Wert said. "I had played competitively since I was 12 and didn't enjoy it anymore. " Wert, who recently won the Most Valuable Female Athlete Award in her senior year at Washington and Lee, played tennis as a freshman before switching to lacrosse in her sophomore year.

On a windswept Chester County hilltop yesterday, two long lines of lacrosse players came together, like the interlocking teeth of a zipper, for the postgame handshake. Malvern Prep and Downingtown East, the last two state champions, had whacked, bumped and raced each other for 48 minutes, with Malvern prevailing, 6-3, on its home field, just a short walk from the site of the Revolutionary War's Paoli Massacre. When the opposing blue and white lines finally moved past each other, the weary players and their coaches slowly separated and walked away, their disengagement on this day fraught with symbolism.

Mary Beth Noel, a graduate of Agnes Irwin, was named to the All-Colonial Athletic Association first team for women's lacrosse. The senior midfielder and cocaptain led William & Mary in groundballs (44) and draw controls (24). She contributed 16 goals and 10 assists for the Tribe, which finished 6-9 and was ranked 16th in NCAA Division I. Eleven of those games were against top 10 opponents. Noel was a two-sport athlete at William & Mary. She captained the field hockey team last fall.