GIRLS Top 20 Preview: #14 Park (of Cottage Grove)
Reminder: our list is based off of the laxnumbers ranking list…here. Don’t hate the journalists…hate the algorithm or your shooting percentage.
We’ve been pretty quiet about the off season happenings…and that ends today. Shout out Park to winning EP’s 10K lax event back in September. We saw it…don’t worry.
What They Were
13-2, 76.29 Lax Number Rating against a 70.49 Lax Number Schedule.
#1 seed in Section 3. They lost to #5 Woodbury in section semifinals 8-7, in OT.
What They Lost
(10) 2024s. Thats 10/27 of their roster. Not all starters, not all super stars, but all contributors and leaders. Ask Goltz for the %, if you want it.
What They Have Coming Back
2025 Madi Brinkman - M: 72g/8a/80 points, 20 GB/20 FT/88 DC
2025 Josie Leonard - M: 33g/16a/49 points, 43 GB/16 FT/49 DC
2027 Maleah McMorrow - M: 17g/8a/25 points, 24 GB/9 FT/12 DC
2026 Lauryn “Crash” Ehrenstrom - GK: 4.23 GAA, 50.4%
What They Have Looking Forward
13 games locked and loaded on the books.
They have their Suburban East highlights (# 4 Stillwater, #9 East Ridge, #13 CDH, #19 Woodbury, and # 20 White Bear Lake) and then the sprinkled in #22 Lakeville North, #34 Simley, Two Rivers, and Hastings as out of conference opponents…yeah, thats a pretty legit schedule.
Our Take
Let’s get this out of the way…Park has lost the past two years as the #1 seed in the Section 3 semifinals to the then #5 seed (Simley in 2023 and Woodbury in 2024). Listen, its not a great look.
That said…we’ve watched a lot of the Park games (calm down, they’re an NSPN school and we have a subscription), and they have their game and they are DISCIPLINED about playing that game. Now…does that make them a well known quantity come playoff time? Maybe. But are they good at what they do? Yeah, they kinda are.
So what do they do? They play a very tight, hard nosed defense that packs things in. Like…packed in. Like…not super fun to watch. We’d really love to see what this defense does against the high octane offenses like South and PL. But they do have a pretty decent proxy in Stillwater. Stillwater scored the most goals as anyone all season against Park…11. If most goals you allow in a game is 11…you’re going to be a factor in a LOT of games.
More simply said, they allowed as a team 4.07 GAA.
What else do they do? They lean HEAVILY on Madi Brinkman and Josie Leonard.
How about 154/192 DCs?
How about 105/172 total goals scored?
Brinkman is tall and strong and really dictates the draw circle. Leonard complemented her on all three sides of the field, but felt like could have picked up any production that Brinkman let her.
OK, so is this the year or was last year the year for Park? Losing 10 seniors is tough. Section 3 is the silliest of the sections on the girls side - you can make cases of any of the top 6 in the section to be seeded anywhere. With a defense like they play…its a real tough look not making it to the section finals the past two year. Sure - lots of great learning opportunities there, but man, talk about adding pressure to yourself when you don’t need it. If you’re looking at straight up %…they’ve probably been the #1 seed that had the lowest % chance to make state…and that the math has shaken out twice now.
Looking out past this year, we need to see more development out of the youngsters, like Maleah McMorrow, or things could get tough for Park…of Cottage Grove.