Bethel Park joins elite among All-America lacrosse players
Powerhouse programs like Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Sewickley Academy garner All-America honors for girls lacrosse. This year is no exception as Mt. Lebanon’s Reagan Murdoch, USC’s Bri Lang and SA’s Elsa Gordon headline the 2021 roster announced by U.S. Lacrosse.
Bethel Park, however, made history as Caitlyn Schultz joined the list along with Peters Township’s Cassidy King.
“This is our first junior All-American and I am incredibly proud of her for earning this honor and excited for this milestone for our program,” said BP head coach Becky Luzier.
A rising senior, Schultz led the Hawks to their first section title since 2012, sharing the title with Lebo and USC as each had one loss in league competition.
Schultz fired in a team-high 68 goals and collected 29 assists and 35 ground balls. She caused 34 turnovers and registered 43 draw controls.
Schultz surpassed the 100-goal milestone this season. She provided the decisive goal in BP’s 13-12 overtime win against Moon in the WPIAL playoffs.
“Caitlyn is a tenacious player who brings a high level of effort to every play,” Luzier said. “She’s easygoing and approachable with the younger players and fun to coach because, in spite of her high-competitive drive, she doesn’t take herself too serious and brings levity to intense situations.”
Schultz applies intensity and competitiveness to her other scholastic endeavors. She owns a 4.1 GPA and is a member of National Honor Society, Principal Advisory Council of Students, DECA, as well as Family Career and Community Leaders of America.
Schultz is also a member of the swim team and a former soccer player.
Murdoch and Lang, likewise, are two-sport standouts, excelling in basketball and soccer, respectively. Gordon is also a soccer player. However, lacrosse is their bread and butter and the endeavor enabled them to earn NCAA Division I scholarships.
A rising senior, Murdoch committed to American University while Lang is bound for Louisville University in the fall. Gordon, who led SA to the state semifinals, will attend Wesleyan.
This spring, Murdoch guided Lebo to the WPIAL finals. She scored six times in a loss, 9-8, to Shady Side Academy and raised her career goal total to 119.
All-America is just one of the honors Murdoch gained this season. Most recently, after earning All-WPIAL and all-section laurels, she was named The Almanac and Observer-Reporter MVP.
“Reagan deserved All-American and all the awards she received because she had a great season,” said Lebo head coach Brian Kattan. “She works so hard both during the season and in the offseason. I am really happy for her because she earned all the recognition she has gotten.”
Since her freshman year, Lang has merited rave reviews. She scored 21 goals and collected 10 assists four seasons ago. As a sophomore, she led the Panthers to a WPIAL runner-up showing and a trip to the state playoffs by racking up 26 goals and seven assists.
Though she lost her junior campaign because of the coronavirus pandemic, Lang led USC to a share in the section title for the second time in her career. The Panthers were eliminated by eventual district champion Shady Side Academy in the semifinals of the WPIAL playoffs.
For four years, Cassidy King has dominated on the lacrosse and field hockey fields. She will not, however, be playing in college.
She will apply her classroom skills to earning a chemical engineering degree from North Eastern University. King, who scored four goals in a WPIAL playoff loss to Lebo this spring, carried a 4.0 GPA that swelled to 5.3 when weighted because of her AP and honors classes.