Thank you for vising my ConnectLax page. I am in my fifth form (junior) year at The Hill School, a top academic and athletic boarding school located in Pottstown, Pa. I am a 5-7 starting defender on The Hills varsity lacrosse team, which finished second in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League last spring. In addition to several impressive regular-season victories, we beat the Scotland U19 National Team in an international friendly. I also play club lacrosse for T3 West Elite 2021 and had a strong summer against some excellent competition.

I recently began my recruiting process asbecause of school and sports commitmentsI have not attended showcases or tried out for all-star teams. Still, I pride myself on being tough, smart, coachable and a leader. I play lockdown defense and am always looking for opportunities to flip the field. In her endorsement of me, my Hill coach, Marcela Gaitan, says, Tess is an incredible teammate that situated herself to become irreplaceable on our team. She is a strong confident defender who excels 1v1 and is a great communicator. Highly recommend! You can see my game by watching my videos from my sophomore season at The Hill School, and from the Summer Genesis 2019 and the Top Flight & Turf Wars 2019 tournaments.

I also play varsity water polo in the fall and basketball during the winter. I played water polo for the first time last fall and became a starter early in the season. This season, I am among my teams leading scorers. On our basketball teamwhich was experienced, with six seniorsI was the only non-senior starter last year and was honored to receive the Hill Girls Basketball Toughness Award. This year, I have been named a captain.

In the classroom, I have earned a 3.9 GPA at the fall midterm with several honors and AP courses. I won a school-wide award for my work in public speaking, was selected to attend the Diversity & Inclusion Summit, served on Hills 2018 Orientation Committee, am the current Sports Editor of the school newspaper, and was selected to be a prefectthe equivalent of a resident advisorfor first-year boarding students. I am also a member of several service-based student organizations and hold leadership positions in several others. In addition, after a rigorous application process, I was chosen to receive Hills 2019 Horizon Award, which funds selected students self-created summer experiences. As a result, I spent three weeks this past summer living on a boat in the Caribbean and studying marine biology.

Most recently, I found out in December 2019 that I won this years grant from Hill to attend a Hurricane Island Outward Bound School experience this summer. I'm looking forward to spending 15 days learning how to sail off the coast of Maine, participating in challenging team-building and problem-solving activities, and engaging in the rigorous leadership development program.

I feel that I can be a strong asset to your womens lacrosse program on the field, in the classroom and in the community. Please feel free to contact me by calling (484) 403-6999 or emailing TGray21@thehill.org. Thank you very much!