Larrabee focused on getting Bow girls lacrosse back to the top

Alex Larrabee knows the last time the Bow High School girls lacrosse team won a championship, but doesn’t remember it.

The senior knows the Falcons have been close since they last took home the top prize in 2009, having been a key part of last season’s team that was the runner-up in Division III.

Bow played Hopkinton three times a year ago, losing the first meeting in overtime by a goal and then returning the favor to the Hawks in their second regular-season game. But Hopkinton took the series, and the championship, winning 13-12 in the title game.

The sting of that loss sat with Larrabee and the rest of the Bow players and coaches all offseason. Now, the Falcons are one step away from replacing that feeling.

“It would mean a lot,” Larrabee said. “In my four years here, we’ve been close so many times. Sophomore year, we lost a triple overtime (playoff) game. I think we went to the final four for like 10 years straight.”

The top-seeded Falcons (17-1) will take on No. 2 St. Thomas (15-1) in the D3 title game at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bank of New Hampshire Stadium in Laconia.

With a mix of returning and new players this year, Larrabee thought it might take some time for Bow to get on the same page. But the chemistry among the team helped accelerate that and allowed the Falcons to hit the ground running this season.

“I think the biggest thing that makes us the team we are and made us go far, our chemistry and friendship level is the biggest thing,” she said. “We all love each other and I think that’s going to set us above everyone. We have the athletes as well as the chemistry.”

For coach Chris Raabe, that chemistry was just as important as how well Bow did this year.

“Team chemistry is big to me,” the coach said. “I hope they leave and they’re excited to have had each other and they have good memories. If you don’t win it all, then what do you have if you don’t have team chemistry and great times.”

For Larrabee, there have been a lot of great times playing lacrosse. While it was the last one she ended up trying, it became her favorite and the one she wanted to continue playing at the next level.

“I think the best part of lacrosse is that it is kind of the building block of every sport,” Larrabee said. “It’s nice being a multisport athlete. You have so much creativity, you can do so many different dodges, or you can play a two-man game and play off your teammates. You have the play aspect like you do in basketball and you can move around, but you also have that speed and full field game.”

When trying to figure out where she would play in college, Larrabee started by looking at programs in big-city schools. Then, at the request of her parents, she went to look at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.

“For as long as I could remember, I wanted to go to a big, huge school in a big city,” she said. “I visited some of those schools and walked away like ‘ok, whatever.’ When I went to Colgate, I didn’t want to visit, but my parents wanted me to go, so I went, and I absolutely loved it.

“I loved the balance between really top-tier academics with Division I sports. It’s kind of like a NESCAC (academically) with D1 athletics. I left with the feeling of totally seeing myself there.”

And it didn’t hurt that she would be around a couple of other New Hampshire athletes.

Lucy Licata, who played at Derryfield, was already on the team and Charlotte Martson, a senior at Portsmouth, was also committed to Colgate. Hunter Drouin (Pinkerton) and Michael Kiely (Bishop Guertin) are on the men’s lacrosse team.

After coaching Larrabee for a few years, it was no surprise to Raabe that she would go on to play at a Division I school somewhere. But before Larrabee arrived on the lacrosse, the coach wasn’t sure what kind of player she was getting.

Raabe had heard the name before Larrabee even set foot on the field as a freshman, and even then, it was an extra year until she ever played a game for the Falcons, as this year’s senior class lost that 2020 season to COVID-19.

“You don’t really know coming from middle school,” Raabe said. “The kids who can control the ball and catch the ball are superstars, but now you’ve got to be able to dish the ball and read the play.

“I had heard things, but I had not seen her play. From sophomore year until now, it’s unbelievable. You wouldn’t think she could improve more, but she’s outstanding. It’s going to be rough to see her leave.”