BEHIND MENCHELLA, EUREKA BANGS ON DOOR OF STATE FINALS
Thump, thump, thump.
For hours on end.
Thump, thump, thump.
Melissa Menchella didn't pick up a stick until her sophomore year at Eureka. That is when she became engrossed with lacrosse. When not at practice or a local clinic or camp, she found a catch partner wherever she could.
"I used to throw (the ball) against the chimney forever," she said. "That was the only place I could do it."
Menchella is now far removed from those days of banging the ball against her house. This spring, when the ball was on Menchella's stick, she banged it into the back of the net.
Menchella scored 96 goals -- by far the most in the area -- in helping Eureka finish third at state. No public school in Missouri has ever finished higher. Menchella is the Post-Dispatch All-Metro lacrosse player of the year.
"Melissa just exploded," Eureka coach Sarah Anderson said. "It was just beautiful to watch. She spent hours and hours developing her skills."
Menchella, a 5-foot-5, 18-year-old, played basketball all four years and was a gifted athlete at Eureka. She ran long distance in both cross country and track.
But after her sophomore season of cross country, she decided to hang up her running shoes.
"I was burnt out and not enjoying it," Menchella said. "I wanted to try something new."
Menchella is from Syracuse, a lacrosse hotbed. She moved to Missouri in 2000, but lacrosse lingered in the back of her memory.
After that first season, she was hooked. From then on she spent hours upon hours playing catch, or catch-up.
Early on in her junior season Menchella said she could see a difference in her play. She was a step ahead and felt more fluid. She began to see the entire field and to know where her teammates would be when she attacked the cage.
"Melissa can see the field and do something with it," said Ellen Wright, an assistant coach in the Eureka program. "She just gets it."
This season, Eureka had big wins over Villa Duchesne and John Burroughs that served as confidence boosts.
"That was huge" Menchella said. "We thought then that we could do something that has never been done. We knew eventually we would get one to go our way."
Eureka had never been past the first round in the playoffs, but that changed with a win over Webster Groves and then a 10-8 victory over Nerinx Hall, the defending state champs. Ursuline put and end to championship hopes by beating Eureka in the semifinals, but Eureka came back and beat St. Joseph's 8-7. Menchella closed her prep career with five goals and a victory.
She'll take her work ethic to Lindenwood.
"I'm working on everything to be able to play at that level," Menchella said.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
