The saying goes 'all good things come to an end' and for the Elizabethtown girl's lacrosse team, the good thing was the 2023 season. The Lady Bears finished the season 9-9 despite a six-game slide to close out the year.

Penn Manor handed E-town a 10-7 loss on May 4th where eight Sydney Pope saves were not enough to overcome the Lady Comet attack. Callie Love-Morris netted a team high three goals while Dani Bruno added two of her own. Pipe Patrick and Aiesha Rios split the two remaining scores.

Elizabethtown stepped out of the L-L for their season finale which ended as a 21-11 loss to South Western on the 8th. Bruno took part in over half the E-town goals, scoring five herself and dishing out one assist. Josie Spayd was the only other Lady Bear to score more than once, finishing with two. Moira Shott, Patrick, Love-Morris, and Charley Lengel-Kramer all added one goal. Pope finished with 12 saves.

The boys' team also saw their 2023 campaign come to an end with the Bears holding a 1-17 record. Elizabethtown's final two setbacks were to YAIAA teams with South Western posting a 27-1 win on May 8th and Red Lion a 13-0 victory on the 9th.

E-town's final L-L game took place on the 4th with Penn Manor collecting an 18-2 win. Bryce Kauffman scored both Bear goals.

SOFTBALL

The softball team stumbled to the regular season finish line, going 1-2 in their final three games. The lone win came on the 5th with E-town topping Conestoga Valley by a 5-1 final. The Lady Bears plated all five of their runs in the top of the seventh, flipping the 1-0 deficit into the 5-1 win. Breonna Edgell finished with seven strikeouts on her way to victory. Astyn Calaman fronted the comeback, ripping a three run double while Sophia Finch added a run scoring double of her own.

On either side of that win was bad news for Elizabethtown starting with a 12-7 loss to Lampeter-Strasburg on the 3rd. Finch highlighted the offense with a three-run blast in the fifth that trimmed the L-S lead to 7-4 but the Lady Pioneers were able to regain their cushion with a four run seventh. Elizabethtown mounted a comeback bid that plated three runs in the seventh, but the gap was too large to overcome. Edgell took the loss after issuing 10 walks and 10 hits.

Coming out of the CV win, E-town dropped their regular season finale to Ephrata on the 8th by a 9-6 count. Edgell was hit with that loss as well, finishing with one strikeout and five walks. Calaman picked up three of Elizabethtown's six hits, including an RBI single that gave the Lady Bears a 1-0 lead in the first. Leah Aldous added a fielder's choice in the seventh for Elizabethtown's only other RBI.

VOLLEYBALL

The boys' volleyball team took a big step to securing not only an L-L playoff berth but also a District 3-3A berth. The Bears used wins over Lebanon and Garden Spot to keep themselves firmly inside the 14-team District 3-3A field with the win over Spot moving the two teams into a second-place tie in Section Two.

E-town had little trouble with Lebanon, opening the match with matching 25-15 wins before finishing out the sweep with a 25-21 win. Matthew Kerin finished with 18 assists while Cooper Torborg collected nine kills. Austin Thomas added six aces, Adam Reedy three digs and Eli Miller one block.

The Bears needed four games to get by Garden Spot on the 9th after the Spartans opened the match with a 27-25 victory. E-town answered with a 27-25 win of their own and put Spot on the brink with a 25-21 game three win. E-town secured the win with a more comfortable 25-14 game four win. Torborg finished with four blocks, Miller 39 assists and two aces while Josh McCoy had 11 kills. Prabin Bhattarai added 15 digs to the winning effort.

BASEBALL

The old 'hurry up and wait' game that no one likes to play is the only one remaining for the baseball team, at least until the District 3-5A playoffs kickoff on May 19th. The Bears are currently slated to host Spring Grove in that first round affair, but the brackets will not be final until May 16th, so they must wait.

The Bears put themselves in a position to host that playoff game after finishing the regular season 13-7 that included a 2-2 run to the finish line. The first of those wins came over Lampeter-Strasburg on May 3rd with Evan Hassinger picking up the win after taking over for Kayden Kimble in the fourth. Hassinger struck out five in his four innings, to go with two walks and two hits allowed. Kimble covered the initial three innings and five of the six Pioneer runs while getting a no-decision for his efforts.

Braden Cummings carried the big bat, driving in four runs thanks to a fifth inning grand slam. Cade Capello enjoyed a two-hit, three-RBI game while both Noah Locke and Elijah MacFarlane finished with one RBI.

One day later the Bears topped Lebanon 9-2 with Pike Burkett getting the complete game victory. He scattered eight hits and allowed just two runs with three walks to go with one strikeout. Cummings kept the hot bat, driving in three runs with just one hit while Hassinger, Burkett, Capello and Dalton Fink all finished with one RBI.

Things turned sour when the Bears played their third game in as many days, leading to a 9-4 loss to Conestoga Valley on the 5th. Three different pitchers covered the seven-inning affair starting with Locke. He was tagged for six CV runs, all in the opening frame, handing the junior the loss. Cayson Ward and Mason Ridilla handled the remaining six innings with Ward covering four of the six. The pair combined for three strikeouts and five walks, pushing the E-town total to four strikeouts and five walks. Ridilla and Josh Rudy each picked up a single RBI by fielder's choice while MacFarlane used a sixth inning single for his RBI.

The Bears closed out the regular season on the 8th, falling to Ephrata, 1-0. Elizabethtown managed just two hits, a double by MacFarlane and a single by Cummings, leading to the shutout loss. Isaiah Shayter took the loss, pitching all six innings, striking out eight, walking two and surrendering just one hit and one run.

TRACK

The track teams slipped in one final regular season dual meet before embarking on their postseason journey. The result of that season finale with Conestoga Valley was an 81-69 loss for the Lady Bears and an 87-63 loss on the boy's side.

Ali Fink and Felicia Morris accounted for two wins each with Fink taking the 800m (2:24) and 1600m (5:24) while Morris claimed the long jump (16-3) and triple jump (34-9). Genna McDonald clocked a 61 to take the 400m while Jordan DiRisio tacked on a win in the 3200m thanks to her 11:35. Ali Rank took the top pole vault spot, clearing 11' while Noreen Lehman (shot put) and Sidney Avers (discus) finished the event wins for the Lady Bears.

Wins were just as hard to come by for the boys with only Brendan Rilatt taking multiple events with his shot put (45-6) and discus (119-1) wins. The Bears did claim two relays starting with Maxwell Gerhart, Jackson Kay, Nathan Merlo, and Trevor Merlo winning the 3200m and ending with Jason Stark, Owen Dommel, Djemba N'Dikwe and Juan Lopez taking the 1600m relay. Lopez added a 400m win (50.0), Kay an 800m win (2:01) while Jaycen Conrad claimed the 3200m in 10:23.