It’s been an eventful start to the high school girls lacrosse season, as numerous area athletes have already reached career milestones less than a month into the spring season.

Northampton’s Teagan McDonald became one of the latest local athletes to hit a landmark statistic, as she surpassed 100 career goals on Tuesday night with a five-goal outing in the team’s 14-5 win over South Hadley. The senior midfielder dashed up the field late in the first half and scored seconds before time expired to reach the memorable mark.

McDonald mustered 46 goals as a junior and got to 100 in relatively quick fashion, considering Northampton’s No. 10 played defense her first two seasons with the Blue Devils.

“I switched to midfield and I started scoring goals and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a pretty cool milestone,’ so I guess that was kind of my goal going into it,” McDonald said. “New position, I’m going to be aggressive and that kind of fueled my energy for offense.”

McDonald comprises one half of Northampton’s two-headed monster on the attack as junior Imanni Power-Greene had an even higher offensive output in 2024. Power-Greene garnered 62 goals and joined McDonald on the All-Western Mass. first team.

Power-Greene gets more opportunities to score because she’s an attacker, but that hasn’t stopped McDonald from filling the net since making the position switch.

“You got to have better stick skills,” McDonald said on the learning curve going from defense to offense. “It’s kind of a different mindset on offense. You’re playing with other people and you have to get people open. It’s definitely more of a team-effort on offense.”

The Blue Devils qualified for the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament last season, thanks in large part to McDonald and Power-Greene’s heroics on offense. Northampton lost to the eventual state champions in Notre Dame (Hingham), during the Round of 32 to finish 13-8 on the year.

If McDonald and Power-Greene — who needs one more goal to reach 100 herself — can maintain their scoring clip, expect to see Northampton (4-1) make some waves later this season in the state tournament. Power-Greene can hit the 100 clip in the Devils’ next game Tuesday against Belchertown.

“I think our team is going to have a really successful season,” McDonald said. 

More milestones

South Hadley goalie Riley Nestor broke through to 200 saves in the loss to Northampton. The sophomore goalkeeper highlights an inexperienced, yet rebuilding Tigers squad that will look to continue to improve under head coach Danielle Clark.

Elsewhere this week, Hampshire Regional senior Mary Thibault surpassed 100 career points in the Raiders’ 10-5 win over Chicopee Comp. Thibault has been monumental to Hampshire’s hot start this season (3-1) and has a chance to take home 100 career goals before her high school career is over as well, according to head coach Grace Ahrensdorf. Thibault needs 30 more goals to reach triple figures.

On Monday, Amherst junior Kiko Bhowmik got to the century mark in goals in the ‘Canes’ 12-8 victory at Pope Francis. Bhowmik oozes talent and has blossomed into a dependable point-producer for head coach Andrew MacDougall.

“Kiko is probably the most polished and most accomplished of the players that we have,” MacDougall said earlier this season. “She leads the team in scoring already… she actually looks to assist first. This is something I’ve been working with her on, scoring is not selfish.”

Last week, Tigers senior Ava Asselin made it to 100 career points in their 17-4 win against Belchertown. Asselin notched a hat trick and added two assists in the victory over the Orioles to round out the Hampshire County girls lacrosse players who have obtained milestones… so far.

“It definitely feels amazing to do this and get the win,” Asselin said afterward.

Rams running wild

The Granby boys volleyball team had lofty expectations entering the 2025 season.

The Rams earned their first ever Western Mass. championship last spring and put together an impressive record of 19-3. With a majority of the roster back this time around, Granby felt it’d be a tough group to knock off once again this year.

That has mostly held true through six matches this season as Longmeadow — the reigning Div. 2 state semifinalists – are the only team to have beaten the Rams. 

Chad Gagnon’s Granby squad will have no shortage of stiff competition the rest of the way as nine of its remaining 13 matches will come against teams that qualified for the Div. 2 state tournament.

The Rams fell to Chelsea in the Round of 32 last spring to cap off its most successful season in program history.

Granby hosts Southwick on Friday at 5:15 p.m.