Girls’ Lacrosse: Coop emerges as a star for CdM

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and that just might be true for Corona del Mar High sophomore girls’ lacrosse player Jensen Coop.

A photograph that ran in last Sunday’s Daily Pilot sports section seemed to say a lot about Coop. It was taken during the always intense Battle of the Bay game at rival Newport Harbor’s field.

Sophomore Katie McCabe is shown leaping into the air after scoring a goal, and Coop is smiling widely and giving McCabe a huge hug. Two other talented sophomores, Kennedy Mulvaney and Hailey Neumann, are also seen celebrating in the photo.

That unbridled joy from Coop speaks to her passion, for the game and for her teammates.

“Jensen brings an intensity to practice, she brings an intensity to the game,” CdM Coach Aly Simons said. “When we have a drill and we tell them to push it and drive to goal, she does it. Sometimes we need our defense to practice with that kind of intensity, because that’s how Foothill is scoring against us. Jensen does that both offensively and defensively. For sure, she brings an intensity to practice. Lacrosse is her passion.”

It’s crazy how quickly that has become the case for Coop, a midfielder who has emerged as a big-time leader this season. She has a team-high 40 goals. Coming off Monday’s big 17-10 road win against Woodbridge, in which she scored six goals, Coop also led CdM in draw controls with 50.

Those are impressive numbers for Coop, especially considering that she missed three games earlier this season due to an ankle injury. But when she’s on the field, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week is a force to be reckoned with.

She has put in the work since getting serious about lacrosse in eighth grade, when her friend Erika Katz brought her to the Newport Wedge program.

“I joined Team OC, and met this girl Caitlin [Derry] from Los Alamitos [who now plays at the University of Denver],” Coop said. “She was so cool and so good. I was like, ‘I want to be as good as her.’ I ended up loving it. It’s my favorite thing to do now.”

Coop played for Team OC last summer, and then for the more-serious “X Team” in the fall. She went to a tournament in Maryland, and to the President’s Cup in Florida.

She got more good news recently. Coop and Mulvaney, as well as Newport Harbor junior Rylie Siegfried and sophomore Katie Hendrix, were selected for the 2015 Girls’ OC U.S. Lacrosse National Team. They will represent Orange County in the U.S. Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament, to be held in Pennsylvania from May 23-24.

“I was so excited,” Coop said of finding out she made the team. “I was kind of shocked, because I didn’t think I was going to make it. Everyone’s so good.”

So is the very athletic Coop, who played defender last year as a freshman for CdM. She admitted she was a work in progress.

“I don’t really think I was the best defender ever,” she said. “I didn’t have any stick skills or anything like that … I didn’t really understand lacrosse very much last year. Defense was just there, so I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll play D. I didn’t really know what to do on attack.”

But Coop said that the leadership of then-senior captains Jamie Smith, Kacie Kline, Kennedy Mulvaney and Sabrina “Bean” Smith helped her grow. So did watching a lot of college lacrosse on television.

And again, so did her hard work.

“She got serious and she got determined that she wanted to play in college,” Simons said. “She really devoted the time and energy outside of practice to succeed … for only being a sophomore, it’s very impressive.”

Three senior captains, Megan Rieden, Mason Bendetti and injured Emily Schwartz, provide leadership this year for CdM. Schwartz provides inspiration, as she has been a constant presence this season despite not playing thus far as she works back from a torn ACL.

But the sophomore leaders are also undoubtedly strong. It’s a group that also includes Kennedy Mulvaney’s twin sister Katherine, who is a talented defender.

Coop is certainly making the most of her time to shine. After leading the team with four goals in CdM’s 11-4 Battle of the Bay win, she again shined on Monday against Woodbridge. That win was important, as it avenged an earlier loss in league.

CdM (9-5, 6-2 in league) can do the same thing Tuesday, when it plays host to rival Beckman. The teams shared the league title last year, but the Patriots currently are undefeated and sitting in first place. They beat CdM, 14-8, in the teams’ first league meeting April 1.

“I’m really excited for that, especially coming off two huge wins [last] weekend,” Coop said. “I think we’re so pumped and so ready. Especially after last time’s loss, we just want to come out like, ‘We can compete with you guys and we can beat you’ … I think we can beat them if we come with the attitude that we came to Battle of the Bay with.”

If there’s one thing about Coop, it’s that she will stay determined. That’s what it’s like when you grew up with three brothers. Gunnar, the oldest, is a freshman at Auburn University. Dane is a junior at CdM and plays basketball and lacrosse, while Kai is a seventh-grader at CdM and plays water polo.

Jensen Coop admitted with a laugh that, as the only girl in the family, she was a bit of a tomboy growing up.

“Yes, very much so,” she said. “It’s weird, because now I’m not. I like pink and stuff. It’s weird.”

Don’t worry, Coop is not having an identity crisis for the Sea Kings.

On the lacrosse field, she fits right in.

“Jensen sets a standard of level of play at the varsity level at CdM,” Simons said. “It’s like, ‘This is what it’s going to be.’ Even though she’s playing on these intense clubs, she’s not coming to practice and undermining the girls. She’s giving them the credit they deserve ... [but] she pushes us.”

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Jensen Coop

Born: Feb. 2, 1999

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-9

Sport: Lacrosse

Year: Sophomore

Coach: Aly Simons

Favorite food: Ice cream

Favorite movie: “Endless Love”

Favorite athletic moment: Scoring with one second left in the first half of the year’s Battle of the Bay game.

Week in review: Coop had a team-high four goals as CdM won at rival Newport Harbor, 11-4, on April 18, its sixth straight Battle of the Bay win.