To hear Ava Fairbanks talk, one would think she was a fairly unproductive player for the Lawrence High girls lacrosse team this past spring.
“My hamstring got super messed up in our game against Hopewell,” she recalled. “I kept playing on it and it kept getting worse, so for the rest of the season it wasn’t very pretty to watch me play.
“I did start to get treatment on it, but I was hardly able to run. I had a huge brace on the entire time. It just wasn’t fun to play. I was just limping around the field.”
Sounds ugly.
But the result was a thing of beauty.
The junior midfielder grinded her way to a huge statistical season, finishing in the top 20 in the Colonial Valley Conference in six categories and in the top five in three.
She was fifth in points with 95, third in points per game with 5.6, 12th in goals with 50, third in assists with 45, 13th in ground balls with 54, behind teammates Caelyn LaFlamme with 120 and Alexis Audet with 76, and 18th in draw controls with 50, behind Audet with 60.
After Fairbanks transferred from Princeton Day School to Lawrence, the Cardinals went from 3-14 in 2025 to 9-9 this season.
“She was obviously a game changer for our program the minute she stepped on the field,” head coach Sarah Berardi said. “The last time we won nine games was 2019. She had great statistics, but she definitely elevated everyone around her.
“She not only scored but was creating for everyone. She impacted our program when she was injured. I can only imagine what she will do when she’s healthy.”
Berardi got to see Fairbanks firsthand when she had four goals and five assists for PDS against Lawrence in 2025. It didn’t feel good.
“I knew she was from Lawrence, and every time we played her I said, ‘I wish she was at our school because she could totally impact us,’” the coach said. “Her first year showed her true impact.
“Having someone at that level who can score and assist is huge. When you have a player who does a combination of that, also winning the draws, winning the ground balls, that truly helps elevate your team in every way possible.”
And while it is all about the team, Berardi feels Fairbanks is in line for some individual glory if she can stay healthy. The coach holds the LHS records for goals in a season with 99 and career goals with 184.
“We’re constantly talking about her goals for next season,” Berardi said. “She’s excited and I’m really excited.
“I hope she stays healthy, does all the rehab she needs to, because I still believe, even though she’s only been here for two years, she could beat my records. I keep pushing her and telling her if you’re healthy that will happen your senior year. I’ve given her that motivation to do so and I totally believe she can. I’d be extremely happy for her.”
Scoring 100 goals in a season is feasible, but Fairbanks would need 135 for the career mark. It’s not unattainable, considering Notre Dame’s Capri Valentino had 137 this year.
“I think I could be on track for that,” she said. “If I wasn’t injured this year I’d be closer to it. I’m super excited for next season and I’m gonna be able to try.
“Next season we’re gonna be good. Lawrence will be very competitive. I’m excited to play with my girls one more year. I think it’s definitely more about wins and losses than records. I want to be a good teammate.”
It’s safe — and accurate — to say lacrosse is in Fairbanks’ blood. Her grandmother, Susan Wisniewski Ridgeway, was an All-American defender for Penn State in 1978 and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame. Her cousin, Emmie Ridgeway, just completed a career at Lehigh and her uncle, Robert Ridgeway, played at the University of Delaware.
“Lacrosse is a big thing in my family,” Fairbanks said. “My family has always been super competitive in sports. It’s just about learning the game, watching people play. I think that definitely helped.”
Fairbanks’ career started in the Lawrence recreation league. From there she moved on to Garden State Elite, which morphed into Mad Dog. She spent some time with Ultimate New Jersey but is back with Mad Dog.
As a PDS freshman, she had 20 goals and eight assists and followed up with 36 goals and 34 assists as a sophomore. She was second on the Panthers in draw controls with 47 in 10th grade and was third on the team in goals.
But with a large portion of the team graduating and the coach leaving on maternity leave, Fairbanks decided it would be best to attend Lawrence her final two seasons.
“I definitely liked playing at PDS, but I just felt like public school is a better fit for where I wanted to be at this point for my high school career,” she said. “I played with the Cardinal girls before and it was so much fun being back.
“We had a ton of chemistry since we all grew up learning the game together. We all played from kindergarten through eighth grade. I left and came back and nothing really changed.”
Well, something changed, as Lawrence went from a struggling team to one that was extremely competitive and will be again next year with just three seniors graduating.
In the middle of it all will be Fairbanks, who was moved from midfield to attack after her hamstring injury so she was not forced to run as much. She certainly wasn’t going to the bench.
“She’s a player who wants to play,” Berardi said. “That says a lot about her. She had to take the draws, but she wanted to be out there.”
Fairbanks is that rare breed of player who can score for herself, set up other players to score and gain possession for her team with ground balls and draw controls.
“She is one of the best players I’ve ever seen lacrosse-wise,” said Berardi, who played college lacrosse at Rowan. “She’s very special. She’s not just a one-dimensional player. She impacts every single phase of the game. It’s very rare to find someone who can affect the game in all aspects at the high school level.”
That comes from talent and the desire to get better. When she’s not playing or practicing with her teams, Fairbanks is playing wall ball or watching YouTube videos on how to win a draw control.
“I use them to practice a ton, like grabs and stuff,” she said. “I’ll sometimes go out to Twin Pines in Hopewell with my friends and go shoot around.”
It’s that kind of intensity Fairbanks uses to lift her Cardinal teammates.
“At practice she’s constantly challenging people, and she makes people challenge her,” Berardi said. “Her level of grit and competitiveness is awesome. Her work ethic is very contagious to our program. It’s really helped us.”
Another aid is Fairbanks’ ability to spot open teammates. Many players are just goal scorers or just playmakers, but Fairbanks has the ability to do both.
“I think it’s just very much reaction,” she said. “I just go with the flow throughout the entire game. Sometimes I have a plan in my head and I’ll have to change it. If a defender comes to me I know someone will be open and I’ll give it to them and they’ll score a goal.”
Berardi marvels at her ability to make split-second decisions on whether to go to goal or pass.
“She’s constantly creating different passing opportunities for players to score with quick ball movement,” the coach said. “She’ll see when someone’s open. Sometimes high school players hesitate or they wait to pass the ball. She sees it, immediately gets it out of her stick, passes it and obviously we hope to score. She reads the field phenomenally for her age.”
That field awareness is key for a player like Fairbanks, who has to see the big picture to make the right play.
“That developed over the years,” she said. “I watch a lot of lacrosse; I like to study people and how they play. I’ve grown up watching lacrosse and it’s definitely helped. And I’ve always loved to play.”
She will continue to play after high school, as Fairbanks has committed to Division II Barry University in Miami. It is a new program that will have its first season in 2027, so Fairbanks is entering on the ground floor.
“My uncle and cousin definitely helped in the recruiting,” Fairbanks said. “I went down there and I loved my teammates that I got to meet. My coach is an absolutely wonderful person and the campus is beautiful.”
Fairbanks is sporting a strong high B average in the classroom and has participated in several organizations in the fight against cancer while at PDS.
With one high school season remaining, she wants to help lift Lawrence to an even better campaign.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “I think we have a shot at winning the CVC championship.”
Berardi enjoys hearing that talk and knows that if her star can stay healthy, everything else will fall into place.
“It’s really been a pleasure to have her, not just her stats but she makes everyone around her better,” the coach said. “We were OK for a couple seasons, but now it shows at a whole other level what we’re capable of. Everyone around us sees her and she believes it too, and obviously that elevates everyone else to play at her level.”
And it is one heck of a level, even when she’s limping around.
