Chaparral takes out Mullen

Cyester's five goals lead to upset of No. 7 seed

By Paul Willis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 1, 2008 at 10:54 p.m.

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More Girls Lacrosse

Opposing goalies might say Chaparral's Chelsea Cyester is one of the state's best lacrosse players because one never can predict where her shot is going to go.

But when it comes to her postgame analysis, there is no disputing Cyester is a straight shooter.

After her 10th-seeded team pull off an improbable 11-10 upset of No. 7 seed Mullen on Thursday night at de la Salle Stadium in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament, Cyester was asked how she was able to draw so many penalty shots in the contest.

"It's not me," said Cyester, who scored four of her five goals on the penalty shot. "It's that they're bad on their defense, so I kind of got lucky a bit."

Perhaps Cyester isn't giving herself enough credit. She was termed "amazing" and "feisty" by Mullen junior Molly Carstensen. She has 60 goals for the season, all of which undoubtedly cannot be accredited to shoddy defense.

But Cyester has a point, considering all but two of the Wolverines' goals were by virtue of the penalty shot.

"We were trying to work on that this game," Carstensen said of Mullen's propensity to allow penalty shots. "It's something we still need to work on."

None was larger than Shelby Hill's final two, the first of which tied it 10-10 with 4:04 to play. The second gave the Wolverines (9-6-1) the lead for good with 3:24 remaining.

It gave Chaparral, which led for only 5:24 of the 50-minute contest, its first lead since an early 1-0 advantage.

"If you drove in, they'd always give you a penalty," said Hill, who scored all four of her goals on the penalty shot. "And setting up for a penalty shot - that's my favorite shot."

After shooting low most of the game and often being thwarted by Mullen goalie Natalie Medved, Hill changed it up and scored her winner in the top right corner.

Mullen (9-5-1), which received three goals from Kelsi Anderson, mostly controlled the ebb and flow for the first 42 minutes, but Chaparral ended the game on a 4-1 burst. The Wolverines will meet the winner of tonight's Columbine-Air Academy game in the quarterfinals.

"They just better be scared because we're ready for them," Cyester said. "We had a tough season and it definitely prepared us for this."

Chaparral5 6 - 11

Mullen7 3 - 10

C (goals-assists) - Chelsea Cyester 5-1, Shelby Hill 4-0, Jessica Major 1-0, Caroline Freyschlag 1-0.

M - Kelsi Anderson 3-0, Molly Carstensen 2-1, Kathleen Dermody 2-1, Ashley Archuleta 2-0, Lindsey McMorris 1-1, Brittany McMorris 0-1.

Goalies - C, Lauren Wells (8 saves). M, Natalie Medved (11 saves).

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