DANVERS — When GG Huet was interviewing for the head coaching position for the Manchester Essex girls lacrosse team, she was told over and over again that the team would be in a ‘rebuilding mode’ for the 2026 season.
“I was told we didn’t have any goalies, weren’t sure if we’d have enough players to field a team, don’t know if we’d have any JV players, and only had seven returning players,” said the 23-year-old. “I was like ‘OK, let’s see how this goes.'”
Huet, a former Manchester Essex standout who went on to play four years of Division 1 college lacrosse at York College of Pennsylvania, and her players clicked and rode that momentum all the way to the Division 4 state semifinals. Although the Hornets saw their season end Monday in a 12-6 defeat to Cape Ann League rival Ipswich, the season has to be considered a huge success by any and all measurables.
“The girls kept trying to give me credit over there,” Huet said, referring to her team’s final postgame huddle of the season, “but I told them, ‘This is all you guys. You were the group that bought into this and knew you could be good.’ They’ve come so far and have such a bright future.”
Manchester Essex, seeded sixth in the Division 4 draw, finished the season 14-7. Three of those seven losses came against Ipswich, which is off to the Division 4 state title game (Thursday vs. top seeded Sandwich) for the third time in the last four seasons.
The Hornets scored the game’s first goal on a Shields Edgerton tally 5-plus minutes in, but Ipswich (now 17-2) never trailed after that. They closest Manchester came was when senior captain and star Abby Kent scored the second of her team-high three goals 12 seconds into the third quarter, slicing her team’s deficit to 5-4. But the second seeded Tigers reeled off three of their own in quick succession, putting M-E back on its heels.
“It just wasn’t in the cards for us today, “Huet said. “We played pretty sloppy in the midfield and were beating ourselves in a lot of ways, making silly mental mistakes, which ended up killing us.
“Possession of the ball was killing us,” she continued. “(Ipswich) is very good at keeping the ball on offense and running the right things. We usually score when we get the ball on offense too, but you can’t win if you don’t have the ball.”
Ipswich led 5-3 at halftime and 10-5 after three quarters, with senior All-American Allie Wile scoring five goals with one assist and sophomore standout Natalie Elder adding four goals.
“Am I surprised? No. I felt we could get back here. That was the goal,” said Ipswich head coach Allison Tivnan, who took her program to the state finals in both 2023 and 2024, as well as the state semifinals last spring. “The seniors are back for the third time, which is amazing, and the leadership group, they really want it.”
The Tigers had defeated sixth seeded Manchester Essex twice during the regular season, 15-7 and 14-5, prior to this Final Four clash.
Sophomore Ema Mustafa had a strong first half in net for the locals with six stops, many with Tigers surrounding her doorstep. Giving way to Lizzie Virden for the second half (as the Hornets often do), the junior made three saves.
Another sophomore, Stella Lage, finished with a goal and an assist for Manchester Essex, with senior captain Laila Mears also scoring.
Huet, whose team will lose four seniors (Harper Brooks and captains Kent, Mears and Teyah Fleming) to graduation, chuckled after the contest, saying she felt like she had “imposter syndrome” after taking the job with virtually no prior experience, so she decided to run it like her own college program.
“I made it clear in my interviews that it wouldn’t be easy. I don’t know how to coach easy, I don’t know how to coach non-disciplined. And the (three captains on the interview committee) were like ‘Great, bring it.’
“So I ran my practices like a Division 1 college program,” she continued. “They ran every single day, they did the exact workouts I did, the same stickwork, same discipline, same rules. It took them a minute, but they all bought into it. I didn’t ask them to buy into it; they did it themselves. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls.”