Andrew Miller

Lauren Mah (left) plays midfield, one of the most demanding positions on the Varsity girls' lacrosse team. Her perseverance has earned her a place on a club team, the Bay Area Wave.

Paly junior Lauren Mah's closet is a showcase of the athleticism that is such a large part of the identity of Palo Alto High School.

Dating back to 1997, countless basketball and tennis uniforms, trophies and athletic gear litter the space, with the recent addition of two new lacrosse uniforms.

Playing basketball and tennis competitively since elementary school, Mah has always been a natural athlete.

However, it was not until the persistence of a friend's father that she decided to pick up a new sport in February of last year.

"[Junior] Juli Dahm's dad [Paly Varsity Lacrosse Assistant Coach] suggested I try it," Mah said. "Once Paly got a team, I couldn't find any reason not to join."

As her season on Varsity basketball came to a close, Mah quickly made the transition into lacrosse.

"The first few days of tryouts were kind of confusing," Mah said. "The new rules and terminology were hard to pick up, so for the first few days I pretty much just ran around like a crazy lunatic. I wasn't really sure what I was doing."

However, Mah soon found that the sport hit close to home, finding it extremely similar to a sport she had played in past years.

"It's really similar to basketball," Mah said. "Once I figured that out, I was able to draw upon the skills I'd been practicing my whole life. It's really the same sport, just on a larger scale and with more people. It felt like I'd been training for it for years. The athletic part of it came pretty naturally."

Though Mah was comfortable with the athletic portion of the sport relatively quickly, finding which specific position was the best fit for her took a bit more time.

After making the Varsity team her first year playing, Mah's coaches continued to switch her around in different positions throughout the season.

"Because I'm pretty fast, [Varsity coach] Jen [Gray] placed me as a midfielder at first," Mah said.

Midfield, one of the most intensive positions on the lacrosse team, requires a large amount of stamina and skill.

The player must have developed the skills of both an offensive and defensive player, and be able to run the length of the field repeatedly throughout the game to lend assistance to both sides. This is where Mah ran into a roadblock created by her status as a new player.

Because she had just begun playing, she was not as familiar with the skills and details unique to the game of lacrosse.

This was one area her basketball training did not prove as helpful. Though Mah showed a natural skill for the sport, she found it difficult competing against girls who had been playing for years.

"Because I'd never played before, my stick skills weren't as developed as those of the girls we were playing against," Mah said. "Jen made a decision to move me back to defense. I could help the team, while developing the skills I needed to play the rest of the field."

Using this slight setback as an opportunity for growth, Mah worked to improve her skills over the remainder of the season. As her first Varsity lacrosse season came to a close, Mah knew she did not want to give up the sport until the following spring.

"Some of the other girls on my team told me about a club team that was starting up called Bay Area Wave," Mah said.

Wave lacrosse is split up into two separate teams: the white Regular team and the blue Select team, the more competitive and selective of the two.

Mah decided to try out for the team, joined by Varsity teammates Caroline Lucas-Conwell, Anna Bastidas, Emily Fowler, Maya Fielder, Mari Wilson, Claire Cooper, Gracie Cain and Helene Zahoudanis.

Despite the improvement made over the season, Mah was still considered a new player among her peers, some of whom have played nearly their entire lives. After a one-day tryout made up of drills designed to test and showcase skill, Mah was placed on the less competitive white team.

Mah began developing and forming the skills that she had begun to gain over the previous months, driven by a determination crafted by years of competitive sports.

"I worked really hard over the summer," Mah said. "I really focused on improving the things that held me back from playing midfield: stamina and skill."

Mah's hard work paid off. Her coaches saw how hard she had been working and moved her up to the Select team in the fall, Mah said.

With less than a year of experience, Mah found herself playing successfully among girls after playing for only a fraction of the time.

"A lot of the girls on the select team have played for a really long time," Wave teammate Lucas-Conwell said. "Most of them started in middle school. I would say most girls have been playing for about seven years on average."

As Mah continued playing at this high level, teammate Lucas-Conwell watched her continue to grow and improve as a player both on defense and offense.

"I have seen Lauren grow through Wave," Lucas-Conwell said. "Because Wave lasted all summer and fall, it kept her playing during the off season, and it instantly helps to be constantly playing during the off season. Also, we had a really amazing coach on Wave, and her talent and coaching helped Lauren understand the subtleties of lacrosse more."

In addition to being moved up to the more competitive team, Mah was also challenged with another chance at midfield.

"On Wave, I don't play defense very often," Mah said. "I mostly play D-Wing, the midfielder on the right side of the field."

Mah's hard work and success followed her into her second season of Paly lacrosse.

"Because of Lauren's commitment to lacrosse, she was able to improve her midfielder moves and her defense skills, especially from being around more experienced players. It makes you want to improve and get to that level too, and Lauren was able to do that successfully."

As she demonstrated her new comfort with the lacrosse stick during the season, Coach Gray took note of Mah's newly developed skills.

"Second season, Jen moved me up to midfield as well," Mah said. "I still play a good amount of defense, but I was happy to see that she appreciated all the hard work I put in."

The improvement and extremely rapid success that Mah has experienced has inspired her to continue her progress with lacrosse and make it one of her main athletic focuses.

"Lacrosse is a really fun sport to play, and it combines all of the sports I have played up until now," Mah said. "It's such a great experience because every day you learn something new to broaden your knowledge of the game. I'm excited to keep learning."