If you thought you saw Gina Wideroff score a lot of goals in soccer, it's only a warm-up to what she has done and is expected to continue doing on the lacrosse fields this spring.

Just a week after leading St. Andrew's to the Class 3A regional final in soccer, the junior is expected to add to last year's stats in lacrosse, which included 65 goals and 17 assists in 17 games.

More importantly for Wideroff, however, was the team's 18-1 finish, with its only loss being in the state championship to Lake Brantley.

"We'll have to come out even harder this year," Wideroff said. "I know Vero Beach will be out to beat us. We had a great season last year, but we didn't play all that well in the finals."

While the team lost eight players to graduation from the 2005 squad, Wideroff views this season with optimism.

"We basically lost our whole defense, but we've got two good goalkeepers now, plus we've got a lot of good new people now we can sub in."

While concentrating mostly on soccer 12 months a year, Wideroff was named All-America and All-League last year in lacrosse, and she spent some of the summer playing with the X Team, a national team that had tournaments in New York, Maryland and Illinois, to name only some.

In soccer, she plays for the Olympic Development Program and Team Boca and finds the two sports compliment each other.

"It's not that much different. It's easy to go from soccer to lacrosse," she said.

Wiederoff also sees lacrosse growing in our area.

"It's mainly big up in the northeast, but now there are more teams down here and better players each year," she said. "Everybody's starting to learn the sport."

Some of the Palm Beach County teams participating in lacrosse besides St. Andrew's include Wellington, Palm Beach Central, Park Vista, Boca High School, West Boca, Spanish River, Olympic Heights, John I. Leonard, Suncoast, Dwyer, Benjamin, Cardinal Newman and Jupiter.

Wellington coach Dave Blouin agreed with Wideroff on the increasing popularity of lacrosse.

"It's growing exponentially across the state and the country," Blouin said. "It's one of the fastest growing sports out there and a great spectator sport."

Noteworthy: Thirty teams competed in a jamboree Saturday at St. Andrew's, with each team playing four games of 20 minutes each.

---

December 10, 2006

Gina Wideroff has committed to Harvard.