Girls lacrosse loses to Castilleja School at home

Senior+Natasha+Mayor+dodges+opposing+Castilleja+offense+player+while+running+to+the+goal.+The+girls+lost+to+Castilleja+School+today+13-1.

Gloria Guo

Senior Natasha Mayor dodges opposing Castilleja offense player while running to the goal. The girls lost to Castilleja School today 13-1.

by Gloria Guo, TALON Seniors Section Editor

The varsity girls’ lacrosse team lost 13-1 to Castilleja School at 4:30 p.m. during their home game today.

“Our start wasn’t very strong today, and the other team played really well,” sophomore Ellen Minkin said. “I think we really improved in the second half after we finally started playing better defense.”

After the first half of the game ended with a score of 0-10, the team discussed a new strategy during their halftime break. In the remainder of the match, co-captain Natasha Mayor (12) scored the team’s only goal and goalie Aislinn Coveney (10) blocked many of the opponent’s attempts to score more points.

In the second half of the game, the Eagles were able to play with better defense. With their new strategy, they only allowed their opponents to score an additional three goals.

“Today, I definitely think we could have come out stronger in the first half, but they were a totally different team in the second half,” assistant coach Andrew Newmark said. “Their defense was definitely at its best in the later part of the game, and everything was a lot crisper. Hopefully next time, we can do that right from the start.”

Junior Priyanka Taneja races with two Castilleja players to chase down a ball. The girls lost to Castilleja School today 13-1.
Gloria Guo
Junior Priyanka Taneja races with two Castilleja players to chase down a ball. The girls lost to Castilleja School today 13-1.

A new goalie this year, Aislinn spoke about her experience in today’s game.

“Lacrosse has been kind of difficult to play because it’s new to me, but it’s also really fun,” she said. “The team encouraged me to play a lot better throughout this game, and we definitely improved our defense.”

Despite another loss that contributes to their 0-5 overall season score so far, co-captain Alayna Richmond (11) thinks that the team has potential to improve and do well in the remainder of the season.

“I think we definitely played the best defense of the whole season today, but I also think that our team needs to focus on communication,” she said. “Right now, we are playing very individualistically. To have the coordination to play well against some of these really good teams, I think we really need to work together to get the ball to the goal.”

The girls now prepare to compete against Newark High School at home this Friday.