RUF AND TUMBLE: Princeton Day School girls’ lacrosse player Shelby Ruf races upfield in recent action. Senior star and Merrimack College commit Ruf led the Panthers in scoring this spring with 72 points on 60 goals and 12 assists as PDS went 9-9. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
By Bill Alden
After losing 15-9 to WW/P-North in the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) tournament in early May to fall to 4-8, the Princeton Day School girls’ lacrosse team could have thrown in the towel on the rest of its season.
Instead, PDS saved its best for its last, going 5-1 down the stretch to end the spring with a 9-9 record.
The Panthers capped the season on a high note by routing Hamilton West 18-2.
“Hamilton reached out to us, someone dropped off their schedule and they had a girl on their end, a senior, who needed one more point to get to 100 points,” said PDS head coach Lucia Marcozzi. “We were more than happy to come and play one last game. Shelby [Ruf] got her 100 goals. Grace [Ulrich] got her 250 saves, she had a phenomenal season. That was a great way to go out. I am really happy with how it all ended.”
Marcozzi credited the senior one-two punch of Ruf (60 goals, 12 assists in 2025) and Natalia Soffer (41 goals, 13 assists) along with sophomore Ava Fairbanks (36 goals, 34 assists) with fueling the late surge through their work in the midfield.
“Our seniors who make the most impact on offense, Shelby and Nat, realized this is their last go and they wanted to make it a great end of season and they really turned it on,” said Marcozzi. “All three of them started clicking towards the end of the season. All of the work the three of them put in throughout the season to get there really paid off.”
Merrimack College commit Ruf gave the Panthers great work all over the field.
“Shelby is a phenomenal player, people forget that she is a defender, she is not a midfielder or attacker,” said Marcozzi. “She is going to Merrimack as a defender. She is a phenomenal defender. She has an incredible sense of the field and has great footwork. That type of skill we needed throughout the entire field. I was lucky enough to have her everywhere. For someone who played a scoring position for only two years, to get 100 goals is super special. She is going to make such an immediate impact at Merrimack. I am excited to see what she does.”
Soffer produced an exciting final campaign for the Panthers.
“I think Nat totally found her confidence this year, she was an impact midfielder for us,” said Marcozzi. “We beat Pennington in overtime (12-11 on May 15) and she got the draw, went right to goal and scored it and won it for us. She just became such a clutch player and that came from her confidence. As a senior, she was huge for us this season.”
In goal, senior Ulrich (151 saves) came up huge repeatedly.
“Not having her in the first few games was pretty evident, you could see those losses that were bigger losses than they should have been and probably some of them didn’t have to be losses,” said Marcozzi, noting that Ulrich was unavailable early this season because she was away playing in the USA Hockey National Championships.
“Losing her presence in goal was tough but when she was there, she made a huge difference. She had over 10 saves in like seven games. It was pretty clear that she was just the backbone of the defense.”
The trio of seniors Cass Salas (20 ground balls), Eliza Bailey (5 ground balls) and Charlotte Miller also starred on defense.
“That is going to be a big loss for us next year,” said Marcozzi.“They were three super senior defenders who jelled well together. They have been playing together on the varsity level for three, four years. We are going to miss them, definitely those are big shoes to fill on defense.”
Looking forward, Marcozzi is expecting big things from sophomore Fairbanks.
“Ava had a really great summer last summer; she played a lot of good lacrosse and it showed this year,” said Marcozzi. “She had great chemistry with Shelby which was awesome to watch when they were clicking. I think a player like her is going to continue to do really well.”
Two precocious freshmen, Lena Wijaya (21 goals, 7 assists) and Andrea Lenart (11 goals, 2 assists), did really well in their debut campaign.
“Lena was phenomenal, she really found her groove, especially when we saw a lot of different defenses,” said Marcozzi. “I think she really gained her confidence getting the ball into the back of the net. She started the first four games, it took a little while for her to get going. She has a great shot, she knows how offense works. I think her confidence is just going to keep going up as she keeps playing. Andrea and Lena play club together, they work great together. I am excited to have Andrea for a full season. It was tough to have her go out with the concussion. You get out of the lacrosse mindset and the groove of practice every day. I am excited to have her back next year and see her do what she started this season.”
In Marcozzi’s view, going through the ups and downs this spring will help the returners excel next season.
“They got experience in games that we lost by 10, they got experience in games that we won in overtime and they got experience in games that we won by a lot,” said Marcozzi. “It was the full gamut, they got the full story of how you win and lose. It wasn’t a one-win season where we lost everyday. It wasn’t a one-loss season where they got used to winning. It was a great .500 season for them where they could experience how it feels in different types of games and I think it is just going to get better for them.”