Dons Defeat Girls’ Lacrosse
March 17, 2020
The girls’ varsity lacrosse team suffered its 1st loss of the season at Acalanes on February 28. The Dons beat the Cougars, 7-10.
Head coach Devon Combe’s had hoped to “move quickly off the draw and set up an offensive focused on possessing the ball.” Combe knew that Acalanes had some “fast players with quick stick skills,” so she prepared her team to “maintain control of the game by only taking low and high reward shots that came about as a result of good team movement.”
Although it was the 9 points scored by Acalanes during the 1st half of the game that led to the Dons’ victory, after a meaningful half-time talk Campolindo proceeded to outscore Acalanes 4-1 in the 2nd half.
“Our half-time talk was centered on treating each inch of the field as if it was that final goal being scored and fighting hard for it. I am very proud of how the team took that talk to heart and came out second half fighting for that principle to dominate Acalanes,” said Combe.
Sophomore Annie Cimperman contributed to this comeback with her “impressive daw control, goals and assists,” according to Combe.
The overlap between the winter and spring seasons and the lack of practice time contributed to the Cougars’ struggles against the Dons in the early-season matchup.
According to senior Devon Ortman, the team just needs to get back into their “flow” as it is “early in the season.”
Junior Kennedy Merrion has “high hopes,” for the rest of the season and predicts that with some additional practice time the Cougars will be prepared to take down the Dons.
Regardless, Ortman is hopeful that by improving defense and “working hard,” the team will be capable of taking down the Dons when matched up in the future.
“As a team, we need to improve our communication so we are able to execute our more advanced team defensive sets as well as our situational offensive plays,” said Combe.
Combe also hopes for the team to “be present” and “remain committed to each other” during both practices and games.
“It is easy to have goals for winning or improving but in reality, the bigger picture is to have goals that mean more to us as people that go beyond the field and the sport. As a team, we owe it to each other to work hard when we are out there together and give it our all even if we have varying levels of passion for the sport. That is the definition of team and it is our goal to constantly define it,” said Combe.
