The Girls Varsity Lacrosse team closed out the regular season in a with a heartbreaking 9-8 overtime loss to Las Lomas. Was the loss due to a hangover from the thrilling OT victory against Miramonte? Letting their guard down because the Knights were 6-11 on the season and 0-5 league play? I think the real reason was because I jinxed the team by starting to write this article before the game with the title “Varsity Girls Lacrosse Closes out Regular Season with xx-yy Victory over Las Lomas”.
The night began with Seniors being recognized from both teams. For the Dons, not only were seniors Maya Stafford (#3), Edie Berzansky (#4), Kate Uffelman (#5), Co-Captain Charlotte Gellman (#11), Christina Hageboeck (#15), Co-Captain Reese Imrie (#17), Co-Captain Emily Roberts (#22), Reese Westphal (#33), Samantha Swift (#34), Julia Lyons (#36), and Sarah Hession (#75) honored pre-game, but they also performed a stirring rendition of the National Anthem and all started the game (along with junior Grace Colaco).
On offense, Emily, Reese, and Kate Beaver each scored two goals, with the other goals coming from Kelly Reidenbach and Charlotte. Grace led the team with two assists, with Maya and Christina registering the other assists. The draw controls were much more even (11 for the Dons vs. 10 for the Knights) compared to the Miramonte game. Reese led the team with four, while Kate chipped in three, Kelly had two, and Grace and Maya each had one. On defense, Kate had two loose balls controlled while Reese Tierney and Grace Eppinger each had one. Goalie Sara Hession (#75) recorded four saves on the day.
The Dons actually did a heroic job pushing the game to overtime after facing a 8-5 deficit with 7 minutes and 40 seconds to go. Kate scored on free shot, Grace was fouled and dished an assist to Reese to cut the deficit to one. At that point the Knights began stalling, and the Dons got called for two yellow cards. Despite being down two players, the Dons managed to tie the game as Grace got a steal that ultimately led to a penalty shot goal by Reese with one minute to go. Unfortunately the overtime magic from the Miramonte game wasn’t repeated as the Knights scored a walk-off goal to hand the Dons the defeat.
The girls looks to rebound as they start NCS D1 Playoffs on Tuesday. Go Dons!
Additional pictures from the game can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hhE6oxcmkBSjob1P8
In case anyone is still reading this, I wanted to give a big shout out to Jeremy Roberts who gave me a Acalanes Lacrosse jacket that was given to him by Mike Churchill, who likely received it from someone else who had a graduating senior. Truly a testament to the tight community we are so lucky to be a part of at Acalanes.
