Kelsey Duryea admits she was nervous and excited when she read the list announcing the 24 lacrosse players from across the country picked to play for the US U19 National Team.
The Beverly resident is an All-American goalie at Governor's Academy in Byfield and was one of around 170 young women invited to go out for the team in early August. After two days of workouts at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, a list was posted with only 33 numbers.
"It was all over for the rest of the girls, but there was another tryout session for the 33 of us on that list. Then numbers were posted again," said the 16-year-old Duryea, who is starting her junior year at Governor's this month. "We were all so nervous, looking to see if our number was on that final list."
Duryea was one of the 24 chosen in the first year she was eligible to try out for the national team. She is one of three goalies on the squad that will practice for the next 11 months before a group is selected to go to Hanover, Germany for the World Championships in August 2011.
"We'll train from now until next summer, starting with our first session in October," said Duryea. "They said there would be 18 girls going abroad, and I think that will include two goalies. There will be set training weekends at different places around the country; they plan to move the sessions around to make it easier for people from different states to get to.
"There are 11 or 12 girls from Massachusetts who made it, a lot from the South Shore or Western Mass. The only other girl from around here is Hadley Brooke from Hamilton; she's an attacker and plays for Middlesex School."
At the tryouts, said Duryea, the speed and skill of the players made it hard initially to adjust in goal, knowing that all of the players shooting at her knew exactly where they wanted to place their shots.
"In high school you try to stop the shot, but there you had to try to anticipate where it was going to be," she said. "It did take a while to get a feel for the shots you're facing, but after that it got easier to stop them. It was just a question of getting used to where you thought they were trying to get one past you."
Duryea's goal is to compete in the World Cup. She is the youngest of the three goalies chosen; the other two are going into their senior year in high school.
She started playing for Hamilton-Wenham Youth Lacrosse and switched to Beverly Youth Lacrosse before joining Revolution, a club team with girls from all over New England. "I learned a lot playing for Revolution," said Duryea.
"I've been a goalie for the last five years, but only started for Governor's this past season. My freshman year we had a senior goalie, and being behind her I was able to pick up a lot of helpful things."
When she is not busy with lacrosse, Duryea plays field hockey and ice hockey at Governor's. A forward on the field hockey team that won the New England title last year, she switches to defenseman for the Govs' ice hockey team that only lost one game all last season.
"Both (field hockey and lacrosse) were outstanding teams; in lacrosse we were a little over .500," said Duryea. "I always wanted to be a goalie in lacrosse, but when I was younger I used to play the field at times.
"People always think I'm a goalie in field hockey and ice hockey, but it's more fun to switch positions. I get a different aspect of the game from all the positions. Sometimes I'm trying to score and thinking offense, but in hockey I try to prevent people from scoring and in lacrosse it's all up to me."
