Girls Lacrosse: Edison's Cassella records 200th point

Four years ago, Edison High School's Lauren Cassella was a two-sport athlete who just decided she wanted to try and play lacrosse. Fast-forward to her senior year and it turns out to have been a really great idea.

Cassella, who had no experience with the sport of lacrosse prior to picking up a stick for the first time as a freshman, recently recorded her 200th career point. She reached the milestone during a six goal, four assist performance against Bishop Ahr on April 29. She is also currently 20 goals away from 200.

"I’m really happy and excited about it," Cassella said. "It’s a big accomplishment to reach 200 points and I’m just happy to have gotten to this point. I’m happy to have achieved this so far and hopefully I can accomplish more."

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Cassella, who also plays soccer and basketball for Edison, decided lacrosse might be a good fit for her because she figured all of the running she would have to do would be beneficial in regards to the other sports she plays.

"I thought I would just try it. I play soccer and basketball and I just started and I turned out being pretty good at it," Cassella said of lacrosse. "No one in particular influenced me, I just thought I would try and I thought I would be good at it. I’m fast so I thought that would help me out."

Cassella currently leads the Eagles (3-8) with 55 goals and 13 assists for 68 points. Last year, she finished with 94 goals and seven assists. For her career, she has 180 goals, 22 assists and 202 points.

"I think she’s a player who is able to read the defense really, really well, she’s able to make them think she’s going one way and then totally blows their minds going the other way. She’s usually able to capitalize on that," Edison coach Jacqueline Schumacher said. "She’s been working on her assists, that’s something she’s really grown with, seeing her open players up and getting good looks, I think she’s enhanced that skill too."

Cassella, who is currently in the top five players in the state for goals scored and points per game, will be playing both soccer and lacrosse next year at Drew University. But first, she has five games left in the regular season to reach 200 career goals. The Eagles earned the No. 7 seed in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament on Friday and will face No. 2 North Brunswick in the first round on Tuesday.

"She’s a leader among our players, a lot of the younger players look up to her as they aspire to be like her, they want to be able to score that many goals and be able to capitalize on those moments on the field and make a major impact in any game," Schumacher said. "There’s been countless times where she’s tallied almost half of our total points in a game and a lot of our younger players look up to her. When she comes to practice and to play, she’s always really into it and excited about getting out there and playing the game."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego