On Tuesday, the Girls Varsity Lacrosse team traveled north to take on the San Marin Mustangs in the first round of the D1 NCS tournament. Unfortunately the 9th seeded Dons fell 17-11 to the 8th seeded Mustangs, following suit with all the other lower seeds that lost in their first round road games.
Although draws for the game were 18-12 in favor of the Mustangs, the loss ultimately was driven by 15 Dons turnovers and penalties resulting in 10 goals for the Mustangs vs. only 3 for the Dons. After the Mustangs put the first two goals on the board, Charlotte Gellman’s penalty pass to Reese Imrie gave the Dons their first goal. From there, the Mustangs scored eight of the next 10 goals to go up 10-3 during a 12 minute span from 5 minutes left in the first quarter through 5 minutes left in the second quarter. This stretch of the game ultimately put the game out reach for the Dons, who continued to fight despite the deficit, outscoring the Mustangs 8-7 over the rest of the game.
On offense, Emily Roberts led the team with 3 goals, while Reese Imrie, Grace Colaco, Kate Beaver, and Kelly Reidenbach each had two. Reese, Emily, and Grace all scored on every shot they took. Grace led the team with four assists, while Charlotte and Kate each had one. Grace also led the team with five draw controls, while Emily had three, Kelly had two, and Reese Tierney, who got her first action on the circle for the season, also had two.
On Defense, Reese Tierney, Grace Eppinger, Maya Stafford, Kate Uffelman and others did their best to compete with the physicality of the Mustangs offense. Goalie Sarah Hession had another good game, securing seven saves, including one on a very tough underhand backhand shot from one of the Mustang midfielders.
I want to conclude by recognizing everyone who helped make this season happen. Thank you to the girls for competing in each and every game, Krista Imrie for handling everything off the field again, Katie Roberts for being the Booster Rep and sharing the post game write up duties with me, Brian Mikalis for taking pictures at the College Park game, Lee Gellman and Andy Uffelman for doing the scorebook, Andy Eppinger for running the scoreboard, the referees, our athletic trainer Chris Clark, and all of you for driving carpools, cheering on the team, and reading these articles. Most importantly, I wanted to give a huge shout out to our amazing coaches Giles Imrie and Mark Rurka. We know that their time as coaches may have come to an end after an amazing five and 10 year run respectively, but we all hope that they continue to be involved in some capacity as their contributions have been integral to the success of the program. Go Dons!
