April Female Athlete of the Month: Abbi Uhl

Name: Abbi Uhl

Sport: Girls Lacrosse

Grade: 12th

Position: Attack

Recent Team Results: Loss against Mahwah 6-12

Senior lacrosse player Abbi Uhl was inspired to play lacrosse due to her family’s love for the sport. Her mom started the girl’s team at Pascack Valley when she was looking to play and there was only a boy’s lacrosse team. 

“My brother inspired me to play,” Abbi Uhl said. “He started playing when he was eight. I then asked my mom if I could play.”

Uhl also looks up to Charlotte North, a Division I girls’ lacrosse player for Boston College, and has matched her game off of North’s.

“She has changed how the game has been played and has been such an incredible role model to watch. Seeing all the things she can do is really fun,” Uhl said.

Uhl likes how North has created so many opportunities and different ways to score for her side. 

Girls lacrosse coach Melissa Velez has a great relationship with Uhl, and Uhl said Velez is her favorite coach.

Velez said Uhl is one of her go-to players; she has been the captain since her junior year. 

“I would define a leader as more than just a top scorer,” head coach Melissa Velez said. “I think a leader is someone I’m confident in going to, and I think people feel confident going back to me.” 

Velez started her lacrosse career in college and then decided to further it by coaching. Her coaches had a big impact on her and she wanted to give back and do the same to her players.

“For the coaches, I had both good and bad, I feel like you create completely different relationships outside of school and I believe they have more impact on the players as a coach,” Velez said.  

Uhl comes from an athletic background and when a game has a fast pace, she jumps into action. 

“I think lacrosse is such a high speed, high reward sport, and it gives you so many creative opportunities to score and work with your team,” Uhl said. “It’s always growing, and it’s interesting to see it expand from when I started playing.”

Currently, the team sits at 8-5 while Uhl leads the team with 40 goals this season. Uhl is a very humble player and always values her team’s success over personal records.

“I’m not really set on a number of goals I want by the end of the season,” Uhl said. “I just wanna make sure im contributing to the best of my ability every single game, [and] I wanna put the team first and not individual stats”

Recently in a game against IHA, Uhl scored five goals which were the most she’s ever scored in a game. Whenever she’s able to score, it always gives her a sense of adrenaline and motivation to go back out there and score again.

“​​Especially in tight games when you work really hard or when a play works, it makes you wanna go out there again and win the draw and get the next one,” Uhl said. 

Velez said she has some good objectives for the rest of the year and for the program in the future. 

“I want to bring our program back into the top 10 in the county,” Velez said.

With the help of star player Uhl, it is a realistic goal for the program to be top 10 in the county. 

She will be attending Union College in the fall of 2022 and will attempt to join the team once the season rolls around.  

“I definitely think I’m going to try to walk on because I decided not to go the recruiting route,” Uhl said. “If that doesn’t work out, I’m going to join a club.”