No. 25 Ranked Islip Buccaneers Team Preview

Opening up the LILJ top 25 preseason rankings in Long Island high school girls lacrosse are the Islip Buccaneers coming in at number 25. Islip is one of a number of teams that are part of a very deep and competitive Suffolk Class C. In 2024 Islip had an overall record of 9-8 on the season which included a playoff appearance. Their season ended in the first round after being defeated by Rocky Point, but they return much of their cast as they look to pick up where they left off and find themselves right back in contention for another trip to the playoffs.

Headlining the Buccaneers is their Boston College bound junior midfielder Caitlin Barnes. As one of the top midfielders in the Class of 2026, Barnes can do it all on both sides of the field and led the team with over 60 points as a sophomore and will be the engineer of this offense. Returning to their offense at attack includes the trio of Taylor Reising (Rhode Island), Teagan Rao (Marist) and Mackenzie Stuck. The junior Reising who is a feeding machine returns after having 24 assists along with 5 goals for with 29 points last season, and fellow junior Rao scored 17 goals with 4 assists. Stuck the sophomore could be in for a breakout season this year after scoring 6 goals with 3 assists as a freshman.

On the defensive end of the field they are led by junior defender Reese Wallace the Florida State commit who already enters her fifth season of varsity all as a starter. Wallace can also play midfield as well as take draws and last season she found the back of the net eight times along with two assists for 10 points. Also returning to their defense is senior LIU commit Sara Geldmacher and in the cage for Islip is junior Abigail Dieumegard (Virginia Tech). Dieumegard who’s now in year five on varsity comes off of a 103 save sophomore season as Islip’s defense allowed just a shade over seven goals per game.

The regular season will get started for the Bucs with their first game on March 28th when they open up with a non-league matchup against Seaford before playing their first league game of the season against Smithtown West on April 1st.