Lacrosse begins season with a smaller roster

Freshman+Heidi+Zhang+practices+with+the+varsity+lacrosse+team+Friday+after+school.+All+members+joining+lacrosse+will+be+a+part+of+the+varsity+team+this+year.

Meena Gudapati

Freshman Heidi Zhang practices with the varsity lacrosse team Friday after school. All members joining lacrosse will be a part of the varsity team this year.

by Meena Gudapati, Winged Post Copy Editor

This year, girls’ lacrosse will only have a varsity team unlike previous year due to the 20-girl roster.

Many of the girls on the team started frequent pre-season workouts a few months in advance to get in better shape for the season. Official team practices began on Feb. 1 at the middle school campus but later shifted to Davis Field.

This year, the team captains are Alayna Richmond (11), Natasha Mayor (12) and Elizabeth Edwards (12).

Alayna spoke about how the team this year differs from last year.

“Last year we had a few really strong senior players who carried our team, and they were a source of really good leadership,” she said. “I think this year there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for people to step up and help lead the team, and I think we have a more rounded group of players.”

Shea Tuli (10) will be playing lacrosse for the first time this season. She discussed playing on varsity in her first year in the sport.

“I think it will just be a really fun sport with a great team, so I’m excited,” she said. “It’s a little stressful, but everyone’s really nice, and they definitely help you out.”

Danae Rodriguez, who was the head coach of the junior varsity team last year, is currently the head coach of the team. Andrew Newmark and chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine serve as assistant coaches this year. Newmark, who is coaching for the first time at Harker, addressed the smaller roster.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing,” he said. “I would say that we’d like to have more girls so that we would have a second team, but having one team allows us to have fresh legs so more bench players which is just going to allow us to cycle through healthy people faster or more often, so hopefully we can keep the intensity up throughout games and practices.”

Alayna reflected on her expectations for the season.

“It’s still pretty early in the season to be able to judge how we’re going to do, but I think there’s a lot of room for us to grow, and with hard effort we’re going to do really well this year,” she said.

The team will play their first game on Feb. 20 at Menlo School.