Karlie Rowe and her friends always wanted to go to East Lyme High School girls’ lacrosse games when they were younger.

“The sport you play, you always want to see the older girls doing,” Rowe said.

What Rowe didn’t know at the time, watching program great Kiki Ryan (Class of 2013) play for the Vikings, is that she would someday eclipse Ryan as East Lyme’s all-time leading goal scorer, something she did this season. Rowe, who once watched the high school games with former youth lacrosse teammates Olivia Facchini and Caroline Healy — the three were captains of the high school team this season — finished the year with 89 goals and 12 assists, giving her 228 career goals and two straight 100-point seasons.

A first team Class M all-state selection at attack who accomplished her career goals total in just three seasons with the Vikings, Rowe was named The Day’s 2018 All-Area Girls’ Lacrosse Player of the Year.

“We have them (at camps) from the second- and third-grade level and they’ve gone all the way through the (youth) program and play for me now,” said East Lyme coach Phil Schneider, whose team also hosts a youth lacrosse day at a game each season, at which the youth players join the high school players on the field for introductions. “They remember the high school players they went to camp with … I see T-shirts years later that they got at one of the clinics or one of the camps.

“It’s a neat part of the program.”

Rowe missed her freshman lacrosse season at East Lyme due to a collar bone injury before scoring 46 goals as a sophomore. As a junior she had a career-high 93 goals with 14 assists, scoring 10 goals and earning Most Valuable Player honors in an Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament championship victory over Stonington.

That seemed to be Rowe’s breakthrough into the scoring column. She continued her onslaught during soccer season, scoring five goals in the Class L state tournament as the Vikings reached the semifinals. She received All-ECC and All-Area honors in soccer.

Rowe had another high-scoring season this spring … despite the fact the defense knew what was coming.

“She works hard and worked hard to get open a lot of the times,” Schneider said of Rowe’s scoring technique, “just to kind of get a stick ahead on her defender, to allow the girls to feed it into her. It’s a tight window and she could catch it, control it and shoot it with some power. She’s definitely more of a catch-and-shoot-type player, not as much as a 1 v. 1-type player. She’s comfortable down by the cage.”

“I’m not really much of a driver,” Rowe said. “All of my goals are off assists. More of, ‘What can I make of this play or this situation?’ It’s something we work on a lot. It’s something we work on in club a lot, catching and creating that open shot. I just have so much fun doing it.”

By May 12 at Fairfield Warde, Rowe needed just one more goal for the 200th of her career, having already surpassed Ryan’s career total of 185. She was held scoreless for the only time this season, instead achieving the milestone with her first goal on Senior Night at East Lyme, facing Ledyard. Before her entire family, Rowe scored six times that night in a 13-6 victory which captured the ECC Division I title and the Vikings’ 13th straight divisional championship.

East Lyme finished 12-8 overall with a loss to Pomperaug in the Class M quarterfinal round.

Rowe committed as a junior to play beginning next year at Division II Southern Connecticut State University, where she will once again be joined by Facchini, and signed a National Letter of Intent this spring which made it finally seem real, she said. She plans to major in exercise science with an eventual career in respiratory therapy.

“It just clicked,” said the 5-foot-5 Rowe of her penchant for scoring. “Having the confidence of my junior year in lacrosse, it made me want to work 10 times harder for soccer season and then 10 times harder for this season.

"… Going into my freshman year, I wanted to make an impact on the program … it’s amazing to feel.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

The Day's 2018 All-Area Girls' Lacrosse Team

Player

of

the

Year - Karlie Rowe (East Lyme)

Attack - Katie Kelly (NFA), Hannah Lamb (Stonington), Jacklyn Lavoie (Waterford), Maggie O'Leary (Fitch)

Midfield - Kate Johnson (Stonington), Megan Larmann (Ledyard), Audrey Matson (Williams), Lydia Tinnerello (Old Lyme)

Defense - Laura Agbayani (East Lyme), Lexi Woviotis (Stonington)

Goalie - Emily Erne (Old Lyme)

Utility - Julia Bates (East Lyme), Emma Sabbadini (Stonington)