The Varsity Girls Lacrosse team travelled to Orinda on Friday to take on the Miramonte Matadors. In a bit of an inauspicious beginning, the scoreboard didn’t work, and apparently the music didn’t work either as the Matadors sang the national anthem unaccompanied. Also, if anyone is every interested in more rain, just schedule a girls varsity lacrosse game as it is pretty much a guarantee that there will be a downpour. What the game lacked in facilities and pleasant weather was offset by an entertaining announcer, who among other things welcomed some Dons fans by name as they walked in and asked the us to call the school to request having the scoreboard fixed.

The Dons came out hot and dominated the first half. In Q1, the scoring began early when Campbell Evans converted on a penalty shot. Grace Imrie followed with another penalty shot goal, and Campbell scored again on a nice backhand shot on an assist from Grace Imrie. In the blink of the eye it was 3-0 Dons. After a few nice saves by goalie Addie Martin, the Matadors managed to convert a goal, but then the Dons came back with another three unanswered goals in the quarter, one by Ella Thomason on a nice fake and goal in the top corner of the net, another from Emily Roberts on a pass from Luca DeBiasse coming off a penalty, and finally another penalty shot goal from Grace Imrie. Addie made another great save at the buzzer to preserve the 6-1 lead for the Dons.

In Q2, the Dons picked up right where they left off. Catalina Liu (aka “Cat”) scored on a nice spin shot and Grace Imrie scored again to get her hat trick early. The Matadors managed to score 4 unanswered goals, but then Grace Colaco scored on a nice run downfield and shot, Ella scored again on a great assist from Cat, and Grace Imrie won the draw and ran all the way downfield unassisted for another score. The Matadors scored the last goal of the half, but the Dons went into halftime with a 11-6 lead.

The rain slowed down the Dons in the second half. Both teams scored twice in Q3. Campbell Evans scored the first goal (securing her hat trick), and Ella had a nice assist to Luca for the second goal. With the Dons up 13-8 after three quarters, they were probably feeling pretty confident they would be able to pull out the victory, but the Matadors showed their toughness and grit and responded in a big way. After they scored first, Grace Imrie scored again (her 5th goal on the day), but that would mark the end of the scoring for the Dons as the Matadors scored 4 more unanswered goals in the Q4 and the clinching 5th “golden goal” in overtime. It was a tough loss for the Dons, but this is a tough group of girls that will bounce back.

Please come and root on the team as they take on Justin Siena at home on Tuesday (3/26) at 7pm