St. Paul's School for Girls Hosting NY, MD Lacrosse Tournament

There's only one way to determine who is the best—by beating the best. 

That's what some of the top lacrosse teams from New York and Maryland will hope to settle this weekend at in Brooklandville. 

“There’s not much competition once you get in your conference," said SPSG varsity lacrosse coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland harkening back to her days as a public school lacrosse coach. "You have an opportunity to play a tournament and you get one opportunity to play an out-of-county game. Three games does not give you much competition.

“Everyone is always looking for inter-regional match-ups to say we’re No.1. There always been a hot debate that New York is better than Maryland, Maryland is better than New York,” she continued.

Kuhl-McClelland is in her second year as head coach at St. Paul's School for Girls after leaving Mount Hebron, the Howard County public school that became the measuring stick for girls lacrosse in Maryland. She said lack of competition was part of the reason that she left the team with a 103-game winning streak.

Mt. Hebron suffered its first loss in 2007 after more than 100 wins to West Genesee, one of the teams participating in the Maryland - New York Lacrosse Challenge this Saturday.

“You’ve got all these media outlets that are starting to poll and say 'this is the No. 1 team.' [But] there’s no way to dictate who is No. 1 until they play. It’s like the BCS,” Kuhl-McClelland quipped.

“This is a very fortunate opportunity that we were kind of granted because St. Paul’s jumped right in and my friends in New York said ‘we’d love to do this,’” she continued.

St. Paul's School for Girls enters the tournament ranked 29th in the state according to latest LaxPower.com poll and in fifth place in the Maryland IAAM A conference, which "people deem the toughest conference in the league,” Kuhl-McClelland said.

McDonogh and Bryn Mawr enter the tournament as first and seventh ranked in the state, respectively, according to LaxPower.com. 

Saturday’s schedule:

• 11 a.m.: NY #4 vs. MD #4 – Hauppauge vs. SPSG
• 1 p.m.: NY #2 vs. MD #2 – St. Anthony’s vs. Bryn Mawr
• 3 p.m.: NY #3 vs. MD #3 – West Genesee vs. John Carroll
• 5 p.m.: NY #1 vs. MD #1 – Garden City vs. McDonogh

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