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Christmas dinner at First Presbyterian Church

<p>The game itself always seemed to come effortlessly to Taylor Alba.</p><p>But winning a District 2 field hockey championship?</p><p>Now that was a struggle.</p><p>Yet, during her final high school season, Alba proved she&#8217;s as gritty as she is gifted by igniting Lake-Lehman&#8217;s run to an elusive district crown.</p><p>As the engine that drove Lehman&#8217;s unbeaten regular season and Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title run, Alba elevated her game during the postseason. Her uncanny ability to move the ball up and down the field and set up an array of talented teammates for a plethora of scoring chances fueled Lehman&#8217;s District 2 Class A gold medal and took the Black Knights on an exciting run all the way to the state semifinals, making Alba an easy choice for Times Leader Field Hockey Player of the Year.</p><p>&#8220;Really, we just had great team work,&#8221; said Alba, a team captain and standout midfielder. &#8220;I just kind of got the ball moving up the field. As a midfielder, that&#8217;s kind of my role.&#8221;</p><p>Alba&#8217;s job was to be a smooth stickhandler who was equally dangerous whether she was firing goals into the cage or setting up teammates to score.</p><p>She wasn&#8217;t particularly dominant in either category, tying for fifth in the WVC with 11 assists and finished tied for 13th with 27 points and barely cracking the top 25 with eight goals.</p><p>But put it all together, and add her knack for knocking opponents out of their rhythm, and Alba proved to be a player the Black Knights not only leaned on, but looked up to.</p><p>&#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t for Taylor in the midfield, I don&#8217;t think we would have had as much success as we had,&#8221; Lake-Lehman coach Jean Lipski said flatly. &#8220;She&#8217;s not flashy. But she is so incredibly steady. She just moved the ball so beautifully. But you don&#8217;t really notice her. You know how ice skaters make it look so easy? And you know it&#8217;s not easy, but they make it look that way. They&#8217;re so effortless.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s Taylor Alba.&#8221;</p><p>For most of her high school career, the daughter of Sam and Billi-Jo Alba of Dallas felt as if she were skating on thin ice.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t her personal performance that had Alba fretting, as she fit comfortably into the game since she first picked up a stick as an elementary school student attending a Lehman field hockey camp.</p><p>&#8220;The high schoolers would always run a summer camp,&#8221; Alba remembered. &#8220;I started in second or third grade. I&#8217;ve loved it since I was little. Really, I just felt really natural in the sport.&#8221;</p><p>By the time she was a freshman, opponents were marking her as a key playmaker. By the time she was a sophomore, Alba had committed to play college field hockey for Temple, where she will be heading next fall.</p><p>But that darn district title kept slipping from her grasp.</p><p>For three consecutive seasons, Alba helped Lehman to the District 2 finals, only to fall short of a championship. Lehman lost to Wyoming Seminary in the finals during Alba&#8217;s freshman season, then Crestwood came up with victory over the Black Knights in the district finals the next two years.</p><p>It left Alba, an ultimate team player, more determined than ever to change Lehman&#8217;s District 2 finals fate.</p><p>&#8220;It was lots of hard work and dedication,&#8221; Alba said. &#8220;Girls would get frustrated if we&#8217;d have morning practices &#8212; 5 a.m. before school. It all paid off in the end.&#8221;</p><p>Then it happened.</p><p>Lehman gritted out a 2-1 overtime victory over unbeaten WVC Division 2 champ Holy Redeemer in this year&#8217;s District 2 Class 2A title game to earn the district&#8217;s top seed in PIAA play.</p><p>Once there, Alba broke loose.</p><p>She scored the first goal of a 4-1 first-round state victory over Annville-Cleona. She scored the first goal and assisted on the last of an 8-0 win over Lehighton in the PIAA quarterfinals. And Alba came within a whisker of evening up a 2-1 loss to Oley Valley in the state semifinals, where her late rocket shot was blocked by an alert defender in the cage.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s such a good role model,&#8221; Lipski said of Alba. &#8220;She works so hard.&#8221;</p><p>Really, Lehman&#8217;s ideal leader was just working for something special that signifies the complete commitment of a team.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really amazing,&#8221; Alba said. &#8220;The other girls always look up to the captains, and the captains always expect so much from the other girls. When the team won districts this year, I&#8217;ve never gotten a gold district medal before. I have a bunch of silvers. When we accomplished that (district title), that&#8217;s my favorite moment of my whole high school career.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just great.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Whether it was the back of the cage or feeding a teamamte, Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Taylor Alba had a knack for putting the ball in the right place all season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_alba-3-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>Whether it was the back of the cage or feeding a teamamte, Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Taylor Alba had a knack for putting the ball in the right place all season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Lake-Lehman standout Taylor Alba named Times Leader Field Hockey Player of the Year