Enloe girls lacrosse works through injuries

Enloe girls lacrosse head coach Sue Kummerle has coached for 10 seasons, seemingly long enough for her to have seen it all in the sport.

Then again, maybe not with regard to her team’s goalie situation in which her team has had to play three matches without a goalie due to missed time by both Jennifer Lee and backup Morgan Sifinski.

“Never … never!” Kummerle said with a chuckle when asked if she ever thought she’d be without a goalie. “I’ve had two goalies in the past and often the second one never plays. I prefer to have one strong goalie and unfortunately the one we have just hasn’t been able to play.”

That one Kummerle was referring to Lee, a talented sophomore who helped spearhead Enloe to victories over Sanderson and Rolesville to open the season before suffering a concussion on March 7 in a loss to Wakefield, an injury that continued to sideline her for weeks.

Sifinski, who attends Wake STEM Early College High School but plays for Enloe as her school does not field athletic teams, missed a pair of games due to vacation and then injured her shoulder prior to the contest against Heritage on March 28. Between those missed games, Sifinski split her two starts, winning against Leesville Road and losing to Wake Forest.

The goalie situation has in part overshadowed what has been a resurgent season for Enloe, which has already matched its win total of last season and is poised to have its highest win total since going 8-5 in 2009.

“Last year we graduated two players and one of those had just started playing,” Kummerle said. “So we lost one good player, brought everyone else back in addition to adding some good new freshmen. We’re getting a lot better.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Enloe girls lacrosse works through injuries."