Ashley Cusack is cashing in on six years of lacrosse playing in elementary, middle and high school.
Cusack, of Kent, made an alternate slot in the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse National Tournament on the Washington Regional Under-19 Team. The team incorporates players from around the Puget Sound region, although it draws from all over Washington.
While Cusack made the team, she didn’t get to play as it lost its first game in the Bel Air tournament in Maryland.
Despite the setback, she was proud of her accomplishment and hasn’t stopped extracurricular lacrosse playing.
She’s enrolled with XTeam, a private lacrosse organization that tours the nation for two 10-day segments and has intensive weekend practices leading up to each tour.
Cusack also made the regional Under-15 team last year. She feels that the tryout was harder for that team than the Under 19, largely because it asked for more demanding tasks at a time when the girls weren’t heavily involved in lacrosse. The U19 tryouts, by comparison, were held when the girls were in the middle of their high school seasons and at the peak of their abilities.
“Those (U15) tryouts were significantly harder, because we had to run a certain distance and get it in a certain time, and we had a bunch of more stick skills,” she said.
Cusack plays high school lacrosse for Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien, where she finished third overall the Alki Conference with 27 goals and 11 assists for 38 points. Cusack finished second in scoring on the Kennedy Catholic team behind Eileen Bruns, who topped her by only three points.
Cusack said that she enjoys playing lacrosse largely for the running aspect of it, since she likes to run, but she also enjoys the feeling of teamwork and seeing her teammates celebrate a goal or exciting play.
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