North Stars Girls Field Trio Helps Empress Capture Apex 120 Lacrosse Title

Local lacrosse players Ainsley Smith, Taryn Weppler, and Bree Wilkins helped their Empress teammates claim the Apex 120 tournament championship this past weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Empress club team, based out of Buffalo, New York, earned a decisive 7–1 victory over Laxon in the championship game, avenging an earlier 7–3 loss to the same team in round-robin play.

Empress opened the tournament on Saturday with that loss to Laxon but bounced back to defeat NEPA Impact 9–6. On Sunday, the squad secured two more wins—8–6 over PA Thunder and 5–3 against TRUE NJ Elite—to book their place in the rematch for the final.

Smith, Weppler and Wilkins, who also play for the Owen Sound Creative Playgrounds JEWL team, will be back in action with Empress on July 18–19 at the Mid-Atlantic Summer Club Championships in Edgewood, Maryland.

Picture (l-r): Taryn Weppler, Ainsley Smith, and Bree Wilkins