Girls' lax looks to come back strong in 2020
The record doesn’t always tell the story of a season. Led by Coach Corey Kelly, the girls’ varsity lacrosse team had a competitive 2019 season.
Though they had a 4-10 record, they had a lot of heart and drive to compete and finished the season strong. Additionally, some seniors signed to play at top schools such as Rhodes, JMU, and Old Dominion, where they hope to make a strong impact during the 2020 college season.
Though they didn’t have their strongest season, the team is hopeful for the coming 2020 season. Paige Howe ’20 said, “Regardless of the fact that we’re losing some valuable players, we’re still gonna try and improve our teamwork and our season.” She said that even though they are losing a lot of seniors who have been there since the start of the program, she’s hopeful for the future. “We think we’re gonna have a lot of incoming freshmen,” Howe said. “If we get enough good freshmen, hopefully we’ll have a better season because it wasn’t our best season.”
Additionally, Howe talked about the potential new captains. Usually all the seniors have a leadership position on the team, but the coach usually picks two or three exceptionally strong players to be the captains. Howe said she’s seen that from rising seniors Ellie Shea, Tory King, and Alex Shallow. As three very promising players, Howe said they will most likely bring the team to a better record than they had this season. She says the team can definitely work on communication and team bonding, but she’s confident about the coming season.
Another varsity player, Clare Comstock ’21, expresses similar sentiment. As a first-year varsity player and a sophomore, she is new to the team and even more hopeful about the 2020 season. Comstock said, “I think the season went really well and we got closer as a team as the season went on.” She said that she had a “really fun season and she can’t wait to start next year.” Additionally, as a rising junior, she thinks it will be fun to be a upperclassman. Comstock said, “I think next year it’ll be really fun to be a junior and I hope to make it farther in the playoffs as the programs growing.”
Peyton Riley, who will be a senior next year, thinks the team can grow a lot, especially with new captains and more people. Riley said, “I think next year, even though we lost a lot of seniors, we’re gonna grow and we’re gonna be really good which will hopefully show in our season.” They all hope to make it to the playoffs next year and maybe get even get a ring. So many of the team also plays field hockey, and they have rings from the team’s multiple championships wins. Riley said, “I think we’ll be in the playoffs next year. We just had a rougher season than were used to, but we can improve a lot.”
