Magic's Reinprecht sees past pain of playoff loss

Katie Reinprecht knows she can't do anything about it now. The pain of Mount St. Joseph's stunning 2-0 loss to Penn Manor in the PIAA Class AAA field hockey semifinals still lingers a month after the loss.

The Magic midfielder, however, says her team's accomplishments this past season take some of the sting out of that loss, which kept the team from reaching the state-title game for the second year in a row. The Magic lost to Lower Dauphin in their first title-game appearance, in 2006.

"The thing that made it so hard, I think, was the fact that our expectations were so high this year," said Reinprecht, The Inquirer's Southeastern Pennsylvania player of the year.

"We made it one step further last year. We didn't get that far this year. That made it more painful. We thought this was our year."

Nevertheless, Reinprecht described her senior season as "an awesome year for us."

Behind Reinprecht's exceptional stickwork, the Magic won the District 1 championship for a second straight year and finished 25-2. The only other blemish was an early-season 3-2 loss to Wyoming Seminary.

The crafty stickwork enabled Reinprecht to score 34 goals. She added 21 assists to the potent Magic offense.

During her four years, she scored 102 goals and contributed 91 assists as the Magic went 93-12-1.

"Reinprecht's a real triple threat," said coach Sue Brown, whose Council Rock North team lost to Mount St. Joseph, 2-0, in the district championship game.

"She's a great player one-on-one," added Brown, "but I think she's an even better distributor. Her passing is beautiful. As a defender, she's one of the best."

Villa Maria Academy coach Maurene Polley saw plenty of Reinprecht during the last four seasons, as the two teams battled in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies. Polley called Reinprecht "a very poised player."

Though her high school career was a game shorter than she had hoped, Reinprecht was too busy to dwell on the shortcomings. She began playing for the Mystx Storm club team almost immediately after the high school season ended. The Storm went on to win the A pool title last month at the annual hockey festival in California.

Then the postseason honors began rolling in.

She earned AACA first-team honors for a fourth consecutive time and was named a regional and national all-American by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. She also earned first-team all-American honors three seasons in a row. She made the Class AAA all-state team four times.

She is the only high school member of the current U.S. Women's National Team developmental squad. This summer, she will head to Princeton University to join older sister Sarah on the field hockey team.

"I'm a little nervous about that," Katie said of playing for the Tigers. "Sarah will help me out, I hope. She said it's challenging, but I'm fully expecting to enjoy it, just like I did at the Mount."

TeamRecord

Final ranking.

1.

Mount St. Joseph25-2

2.

Council Rock North 20-5-1

3.

Villa Maria Acad. 20-5

4.

Perkiomen Valley 22-4

5.

Haverford High 21-4

6.

Methacton 19-8

7.

North Penn16-6-3

8.

Merion Mercy 16-7

9.

Strath Haven 18-2

10.

Archbishop Carroll13-3-1

- Don Beideman