Former New Canaan star Olivia Hompe wrapped up her great career at Princeton University by earning First-Team All-America honors to highlight the many achievements of former FCIAC girls lacrosse players who have continued their careers as student-athletes in college.
An Ivy League champion and record-setter with Princeton, Hompe is a nominee for the NCAA’s Woman of the Year, which will be awarded during the fall.
Here’s a look at how Hompe, as well as many of other former FCIAC lacrosse stars, performed this spring.
Brien McMahon
Allison Granata was a senior midfielder and tri-captain for New England College who concluded an excellent career.
She fired in a season-high eight goals against Lyndon State and finished the best season of her career with with a career-high 85 points (71 goals and 14 assists). Granata had 206 goals and 54 assists in 72 games during her four-year career.
Danbury
Julia Doyle and Molly Miller both played for Meredith College, Andrea Tarsi and Mikayla Ramos were on the hometown Western Connecticut State University roster, while the other six former Hatters on women’s college lacrosse rosters included Pauline Kaplan (UC-Davis), Emma Kaplan (Hartwick), Majmah James (Pace), Geovanna Ferreira (Bridgeport), Lauren Guiry (RPI), and Ashley McNamara (New England College).
Miller was a senior attacker who had 75 points (16 goals and 59 assists) while starting in 18 of 19 games. She played three years in her career and racked up 213 points on 72 goals and 141 assists. Doyle was a sophomore attacker who had four goals and two assists in 11 games.
Tarsi was a junior midfielder and Ramos was a sophomore defender/goalkeeper for WCSU. Tarsi had nine goals and two assists while starting in 19 games. Ramos made three saves and won the only game she started as goalie and she also started in seven of the 10 games she played on defense.
Pauline Kaplan, a senior defender and a chemistry major at the University of California-Davis, earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Academic distinction for the maximum third time in her career. She started in every game for the third consecutive year.
Emma Kaplan was a sophomore defender who caused nine turnovers and picked up 22 ground balls while starting in every game for ‘Wick.
James was a junior defensive middie who had a goal and two assists in 17 games for Pace. Ferreira was a sophomore defender who scored a goal, scooped up 17 ground balls and forced 10 turnovers in 15 games for UB. Guiry was a sophomore midfielder who played in 14 games for RPI.
McNamara was a freshman defender who tallied seven goals and three assists while playing in 18 games.
Darien
Jenna Fritts was a senior attacker and Susie Ropp a freshman attacker who combined to provide most of the scoring for California.
Fritts concluded her outstanding career with 112 career points, racking up 63 goals and 49 assists in 59 games. This senior year she was a team captain and Cal’s team leader in points (63), goals (47) and assists (16). She was named to the All-MPSF Second Team.
Ropp gave display of her promise with a successful freshman year in which she was second on the team in assists (13) and points (40) and third on the team in goals (27). She scored four goals and an assist to help lead Cal to a 16-14 victory over Fresno State on April 24 and that performance enabled her to be named MPSF Rookie of the Week.
Hollis Perticone racked up 44 points with 33 goals and 11 assists in 21 games as a junior midfielder for Middlebury.
Daphne Budd was a freshman defender for Gettysburg College.
Ellie Bennett was a senior defender for Dartmouth College.
Samantha Nielsen appeared in three games as a sophomore goalie at Cornell.
Fairfield Ludlowe
Ali Gorab started in 21 of the 23 games she played as a junior defender for Gettysburg College and she was tied for second on the team with 32 ground balls.
Greenwich
Carolyn Paletta was a sophomore midfielder Brown who earned Honorable Mention All-Ivy recognition. Paletta started in all 14 games. She had 30 goals and six assists and was second on the team in both categories and registered a hat trick six times. Paletta led her team with 53 draw controls and was ranked fourth in the Ivy League in draw controls per game (3.79).
Anne Dunster and Milli Haimerl both made key contributions for Dickinson. Dunster collected 30 goals and 20 assists while starting in all 18 games as a sophomore midfielder. Haimerl started in 14 of the 15 games she played as a senior defender who had 26 ground balls.
Brooke Klair had 32 goals and 17 assists as a sophomore attack for Susquehanna University.
Emma Christie was a senior attacker who completed her career at Gettysburg College with 93 career points on 78 goals and 15 assists. As a senior she had her best season with 41 goals and eight assists.
Olivia Lazar was a sophomore defender at Bentley. Natalie Paletta was a sophomore defensive middie for Cornell.
New Canaan
Olivia Hompe had another fantastic season as a senior midfielder for Princeton University to put the wraps on a fabulous career in which she became Princeton’s all-time scoring leader with 282 points and goal scorer with 195 goals. She is second all-time with 87 assists.
The tri-captain set the single-season record of 110 points (75 goals and 35 assists), she led the NCAA in goals per game (3.95) and finished third in points per game (5.79) while starting in all 19 games.
She was named Ivy League Attacker of the Year and was selected First-Team All-America, First-Team All-Region, First-Team All-Ivy League, Academic All-Ivy League and to the Ivy League All-Tournament Team. Hompe set six records in the Ivy League Tournament – goals in a game (seven) and in a tournament (10), assists in a game (six) and in a tournament (nine), and points in a game (nine) and in a tournament. This past great senior season followed up a junior season in which she was a team captain and the team’s leading scorer with 59 points (47 goals and 12 assists) and was selected First-Team All-Ivy League and Third-Team All-America.
Hompe led a group of five players from the New Canaan High School Class of 2013 who played for the respective colleges. The others included Liz O’Sullivan (St. Joseph), Wheatley Raabe (California), Bea Eppler (Middlebury) and Abigail Sawabini (Colorado College).
Raabe was a senior defender who started in all 18 games for Cal and secured 15 ground balls.
Eppler was a senior attacker who fired in 29 goals and added three assists for Middlebury.
Sawabini wrapped up her very good career as a senior defender for the Tigers. She has been a regular starter since her sophomore year and she picked up 29 ground balls this year to finish her career with 104. She also scored four career goals, netting one in each season.
In addition to those handful of former Rams from the Class of ’13 concluding their collegiate careers, New Canaan’s classes of 2015 and ’16 each had four young ladies on their college rosters.
The four from the New Canaan Class of ’15 included Elizabeth Miller (Boston College), Isabel Taben (Dartmouth), Matt Novick (Lafayette) and Bailey Pilder (Gettysburg).
Miller had a very good sophomore season as defender who picked up 43 ground balls and was selected to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Second Team for BC’s Eagles. Miller also earned the Athletics Director’s Award for Academic Achievement.
Novick was a sophomore defender who scooped up 25 ground balls as she started in 12 of the 16 games she played in her first year of action for Lafayette after being sidelined all of last year with an injury.
Pilder was a sophomore goalie who played a total of 241 minutes in 12 games for Gettysburg. She had 20 total saves and a .465 save percentage.
Alumni from the Class of ’16 at NCHS who were freshmen on their respective college rosters included attacker Catherine Granito (Michigan), midfielder Sami Stewart (West Point) and defender Mia Carroll (Williams).
Stewart led her team’s freshman class in virtually every category while playing in all 17 games and starting in 14 of them. She was sixth on the team with 26 points (17 goals, nine assists), she had 26 ground balls, was third on the team with 14 caused turnovers, and she was first for Army on the draw with 61 controls, which ranked her eighth in the Patriot League.
Carroll played in seven games at Williams.
Also from the NCHS Class of 2016, Kylie Murphy is bound for Butler after a postgraduate year at Westminster this past year.
Ridgefield
Liana Mathias was a senior attacker for Wesleyan who racked up 45 points on 30 goals and 15 assists and was selected to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division III All-Berkshire Region First Team. She started in 45 of 61 games during her four-year career and collected 74 goals and 37 assists for 111 points.
Casey Briody was a senior defender and team co-captain who wrapped up her stellar career at Tufts by being named to the 2017 Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Pilgrim Region Second Team. She was the team leader and fifth in the league with 37 ground balls and she also caused 14 turnovers.
Shauna Norris was a senior attack/middie who started in 35 of 51 games during her four-year career at American and compiled 30 points on 24 goals and six assists.
Maddie Burns was a sophomore goalie who played in 15 games and started in 12 of them at West Point. She earned all five of Army’s wins in net, made 85 saves on the 304 shots she faced and was first on the team in ground balls with 40.
Kimmy Weinstock was a freshman midfielder who started in nine out of 14 games for Temple. She took the draw for the Owls a significant amount of time and ranked third on the team with 24 draw controls.
Sarah Strange played in 10 games as a sophomore defender for Iona. Sarah Kaiser played in eight games as a sophomore midfielder at Hamilton. Erica Ely was a junior defender at the University of California-Davis.
Staples
Amelia Heisler started in all 18 games as a sophomore defender for Lafayette and was third on the team with 37 ground balls.
Jenna McNicholas sophomore attacker who had 19 goals and three assists in 18 games for Middlebury College.
Anna Eichorn played in 11 games as a freshman midfielder for Wellesley and she did register the first goal of her career.
Samantha Kratky was a sophomore attacker at Lehigh.
Wilton
Cecily Freliech had 18 goals and an assist as a sophomore midfielder at Tufts.
