Girls lacrosse: Wheaton United champ at Cougar/Hawk tournament

Three lacrosse games in seven hours makes for a long day.

For the Wheaton United girls team is was worth it. Wheaton came away with a 10-5 win over host Conant Saturday afternoon in the championship game, claiming its first championship in the three year history of the Cougar/Hawk tournament in Hoffman Estates.

Senior Campbell Clynch and sophomore Tate Stokesberry did most of the damage for Wheaton.

"Andersen Lewellyan played a great tournament for us giving the offense face off advantages," said Wheaton coach Paul Ciufo. "Clynch and Stokesberry played well. When Conant got close (5-4) in the early part of the second half we didn't flinch. I saw Campbell play when she was six years old and right then, I knew she would be a player. I know how hard Tate works with her father in their backyard. She lives and loves the game."

Clynch scored back-to-back goals to give Wheaton (6-4) some breathing room at 7-4 with 18:19 left in the game.

Conant's Hannah Shulman scored her second goal with 14:48 to pull the Cougars (5-8) to within striking distance.

But Stokesberry scored her second goal which was followed by Brooke Siebert and then Lewellyan to finish the scoring for Wheaton.

Stokesberry also had 5 assists, three of them to Clynch.

"I'm a big assister," said Stokesberry. "I get a good view of the field from my attack position and I feel that's my strength. I like finding Campbell. She's so good at getting open that I don't know how she does it. I think we can have a real good season because we have a real good senior class and some good underclassmen."

Clynch scored two of her goals in the first half, both coming by way of assists from Stokesberry in building a 4-1 lead.

"I like to think that being left-handed I can be creative on the field," said Clynch. "Tate and I have such great chemistry together. We really connect well on pass and shoot situations."

"We've seen good shooters and good skill levels from different teams that we have played," said Conant coach Eric Jacobsen. "But we haven't seen players like Stokesberry and Clynch, who have both abilities."

Clynch learned much of her game from her mother Kendall, who was a star lacrosse player at Ohio Wesleyan.

"She was a really good player," said Clynch. "She played attack and taught be all the tricks into becoming a good player. Today was a lot of fun. But for the championship game I was tired. But everyone else was too so we just had to put out the extra effort."

Jacobsen was pleased with his team's performance finishing with the second-place trophy.

"We had to play our first game this morning at 8 a.m.," said Jacobsen. "We lost a real tough game to Hoffman Estates Thursday night, and I wasn't sure how the girls would react. I was very pleased with the girls' efforts in these games."

Conant defeated Hampshire 13-2 in the early game then defeated Minooka 15-2 in the semifinal.

Wheaton defeated a stubborn Huntley team 7-2 before topping Hoffman Estates 12-6 in the second semifinal.

The Hawks had to play back-to-back games for third place and defeated Minooka 10-6 behind Kate Mongol's 3 goals.