In just its third year, the girls’ lacrosse team has high hopes for the upcoming season despite the challenge of competing in a more competitive league.
Head coach Jen Gray said the team plans to work extremely hard toward becoming league champions.
“We are planning to play our hardest and get better every practice, every game,” Gray said. “A team goal this year is to get to the league championship game.”
Last year the team played in the West Bay Athletic League and tied for the division title, but this year it will compete in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, a more difficult and experienced league.
“Last year we started the season incredibly strong and made such an improvement from the year before,” senior defenseman Natalie Gauthier said. “We want to bring the same fire into this season as we did last year. Now that we started at a higher level we can continue to exceed everyone’s expectations.”
The varsity team lost four key players to graduation last year – goalie Anna Bastidas, midfield Helene Zahoudanis, and attackers Caroline Lucas-Conwell and Kirsten Atkinson – but, with 11 returning seniors this year, much of the chemistry of the team has remained intact. In addition to the experienced seniors on the team such as Lauren Mah, Emily Fowler and Maya Fielder, who led the team last year at the midfield, freshman Charlotte Biffar and Nina Kelty are expected make an immediate impact.
“They [last year’s seniors] were all really solid players, and our attack is definitely different without them there,” Fielder said. “But, we have some new freshmen talent that will definitely fill the gap the seniors left in our attack.”
In addition to strong new players, the team has added an additional coach, Jamie Nesbitt, which has taken some of the pressure off of Gray.
“The program looks so different this year because we have a new coach, Jamie,” senior attacker Mari Wilson said. “Jen [Gray] is still coaching but now we have a second coach so Jen isn’t spread so thin.”
Gray said the consistency and depth of the team has contributed to its early success.
“The great thing about our team is that we have no superstars in the sense that we don’t have to rely on one or two strong players to carry the team and make things happen,” Gray said. “Everyone contributes, everyone is a scoring threat, everyone can play defense.”
The team agreed that their greatest asset is their friendship, which contributes to their work both on and off the field.
“The fact that we are such good friends creates amazing chemistry on the field and we are able to play very well together,” Gauthier said. “Our heart is the strongest thing about our team. We all want this so badly and are willing to do whatever it takes to be the best.”
Despite the versatility of the team, Gray said the Vikings need to work on developing better field awareness.
“As our stick skills are getting better and better each season, we still need to work on field sense and game knowledge since we are still a pretty new program,” Gray said.
Senior midfield Emily Fowler said a main focus for the team this year is improving their defense.
“This year we’re focusing a lot more on team defense,” Fowler said. “Our coach [Gray] says she wants us to have the best defense in our league, and be known for that rather than our attack.”
In only its third year of existence, the team had not previously had the luxury of having girls with lacrosse experience come to the team from middle school. However, this year the team has a large group of freshman who have played lacrosse before, which Gray said will impact both JV and varsity.
“This year was the first year really that we had a freshmen class come in with some experience at the middle school club level,” Gray said. “This is going to make a huge difference this season and in future seasons because we can start with more advanced skills right off the bat.”
The varsity team will play Trinity High School at 4 p.m. on Friday at Paly. Because this is not a league game, Gray said it will allow the team to try new things and prepare for the rest of the season.
“This is going to be a great test for us,” Gray said. “Normally I would not have such strong competition so early in the season, but I think this will be a chance for us to really leave everything on the field, try new things, take risks without worrying about our league record, and give us clear things we need to work on the rest of the season.”