On Tuesday, the Varsity Girls Lacrosse team returned home to take on the Monte Vista Mustangs, a team that went 10-7 last year including a 14-6 victory over Acalanes, and ended the year ranked #31 in California. Despite the challenge, the Dons pulled out a 16-10 victory which pushed their record to 3-1 on the season.

On offense, the Dons were able to jump out to a 10-2 lead in the first half thanks in large part to controlling a remarkable 12 of the 14 draws and causing 9 turnovers. Emily Roberts again led the team on offense, scoring a double hat trick, making every shot she took. Kate Beaver and Kelly Reidenbach each had a hat trick (Kelly had another goal waved off due to a crease violation), while Grace Colaco chipped in two goals and Christina Hageboeck scored one goal that was originally waved off, but then counted. The Dons had an additional 7 shots that were saved by the sure-handed Mustang goalie.

Midfielders Grace and Kelly dominated the draw, collecting a total of 17 between them, which was 5 more than the entire Monte Vista team. Kelly had a couple notable plays, including one where Grace swatted the draw to her as she was standing a couple feet away and still managed to control the ball, and another where it looked like she was playing hacky sack with the ball on her stick. Charlotte Gellman led the team with two assists, while Grace and Emily each had one. Grace and Emily led the team with 3 loose balls controlled each, Kelly and Reese Tierney had two each, and Kate Uffelman, Charlotte, Reese Imrie and Kate Beaver each had one. Kate Beaver also had a nice steal from the Mustang goalie.

The defense continued to play well.  Goalie Sara Hession secured 4 saves, including one off of a tough penalty shot that changed the momentum of the game after the Mustangs had scored 5 unanswered goals in the third quarter.  Reese Tierney, Grace Eppinger, Edie Berzansky, Ruby Bogan and others continued to play relentless defense which helped keep the ball on the Mustang half of the field for most of the game.  

Did you ever wonder where we get all the statistics for these articles? In addition to relying upon the scorebook, Boosters supports all of the Varsity teams at Acalanes by paying for a service called Hudl Assist, which breaks down film of all home varsity games for the coaches and players. There are way too many stats to include here, but thought I would at least share a couple interesting charts it generated from this game:

Shot Chart

Possession Chart

The team heads to Oakland to take on Bishop O’Dowd on Friday at 7pm