Lacrosse is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins dating back to indigenous people as early as the 12th century. By the 17th century, a version of the sport was well-established and documented in the territory of present-day Canada. In this version, each team consisted of 100-1,000 players, the field was several miles long, and games lasted 2-3 days. In 1860, William George Beers, a Canadian dentist, codified the game, shortening the length and reducing the number of players to 12 per team. The women’s game was introduced by Louisa Lumsden in Scotland in 1890, and the first women’s club in the US was started by Rosabelle Sinclair at Bryn Mawr School in 1926. Yes this is the same way the opening game article began two years ago, but I thought it was worthwhile as this year marks the 100th anniversary of that first women’s US lacrosse club team.
After wrapping up an 8-10 season last year playing a very difficult schedule with a young team (only 6 seniors), the 2026 Acalanes Girls Varsity Lacrosse team has a reason for optimism as it features 15 returning players, with an equal number of Seniors and Juniors (11) plus two Freshmen. The team captains are Seniors Charlotte Gellman (#11), Reese Imrie (#17), and Emily Roberts (#22).
The team kicked off their season on Friday on the road against the Amador Valley Dons, a team ranked #21 in California that came to Lafayette for opening day last year and left with a 22-5 victory, in a game that should have had an asterix assigned to it as Acalanes was missing a number of girls who were wrapping up the soccer season. This year, with the team at full strength, the Dons battled from the opening draw but ultimately came up a bit short 13-12 in a game that featured a number of lead changes, physical play, announcers who altered last name pronunciations but rocked the tunes, and actual and figurative fireworks including a coach “asked” to leave the sideline for the first time in his 10 year career.
The defense was anchored by Senior Goalie Sara Hession (#75), who did amazing job keeping the Dons in the game with 8 saves, including a few off of penalty shots. She was supported on defense by fellow starters, Senior Edie Berzansky (#3) and Juniors Grace Eppinger (#7), Reese Tierney (#21), and Ruby Bogan (#9). Reese T. led the team with 3 loose balls controlled, while Edie chipped in two. Grace E. had a few full field runs and took one for the team on a errant stick from one of the Amador players.
The Dons were extremely efficient on offense, scoring 12 goals for the game on only 15 shots. Junior midfielder Grace Colaco (#10) was able to secure 9 draws to go along with 3 goals. Seniors attackers Kate Beaver (#19) and Emily Roberts (#22) also chipped in 3 goals apiece, with the other goals coming courtesy of midfielder Reese Imrie and attacker Charlotte Gellman. Charlotte also led the team with 2 assists. Freshmen attacker Ximena Angel (#32) and midfielder Kelly Reidenbach (#40) also looked comfortable as they both played well in the first high school game of their young careers, with Kelly doing her best Allen Iverson impression breaking the ankles of one of the Amador defenders.
This will be my 11th season writing Boosters articles. As many of you know, I like to report on the game beyond the game to try to entertain the few people that actually read these articles. For example, since it was Dons vs. Dons, we reverted to cheering Go Blue which led to the inevitable Old School reference “You’re my boy Blue”. I also appreciate comments such as “that shouldn’t have been called a penalty” against an Amador defender which led me question which Dons team was being supported. I am always open to suggestions, such as “you should take a picture of the scoreboard” when the game was tied given how improbable that seemed given the result last year. Lastly, I like to give shout-outs, and the one from this game clearly has to go the the Amador announcers who played songs including the Seinfeld and Gilligan’s Island Theme Songs, Kung Fu Fighting, and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song that had the fans laughing and players dancing.
My one ask is that if anyone has a nice camera, please come take individual and team pictures for at least one home game and one away game so we can pretend that the pictures are from the specific game we are covering. Go (Acalanes) Dons!
Please come support the team for their first home game of the season on Thursday, February 26th against Berkeley at 7pm
