Fighting a drizzly night, the varsity girls’ lacrosse team took on the Austin High School Maroons on the Lady Warriors’ Senior Night on Wednesday, April 3. After a tough battle, the Warriors eventually fell behind and stayed behind the Maroons to finish the game with a score of 15-5.

“I think I tried to play harder because it was my [second-to-last] last time on the field with the girls and so I wanted to just leave it all out there,” senior defender Grace Healy said.

The first half opened with a draw control from Sarah Poppe ‘22 who the passed the ball off to Sam Newlin ‘22. Sprinting up the field towards the Austin goal, Newlin connected a pass to Stephanie Shih ‘20 who took a crease roll to score the first goal of the game, 1-0. Austin immediately countered with a goal of their own, and from there, the Maroons scored a sequence of three more goals. Poppe later assisted Newlin who charged down the field to raise the Lady Warriors’ score. Despite Newlin’s goal, Austin pushed forward, scoring five more goals, putting the score at 9-2 in the Maroons’ favor. Two interceptions by Healy created opportunities for the Warriors’ to score, but the attacking line wasn’t able to put more points on the board, and the half ended with the Maroons keeping a seven-point lead.

“[During halftime] I was thinking about how I could contribute to the next half of the game, [with] strategies [and] plays,” Newlin said.

Right off the bat of the second half, Austin powered down the field to score the first goal of the half. Shih worked her way around the crease to score the Warriors’ third goal of the night, but the Maroons converted a penalty shot into a goal to put the score at 11-3 in Austin’s favor. Following good defensive positioning, Alyssa Beita ‘20 picked up a ground ball, passed it to Emma Monreal ‘20 who transitioned the ball to Poppe. Poppe connected the ball to Shih for another assist and goal, respectively, setting the score at 12-4. The Maroons scored their last three goals of the game, and Monreal kicked the ball towards Newlin for a ground ball and transition which eventually led to Newlin scoring the last goal of the game, 15-5, Maroons taking the victory.

“Despite a quick start by Austin, the team didn’t give up the fight. We used a more aggressive style of defense in the second [half] to create more possession and disrupt the play of Austin’s offense,” Coach Alex Ross said. “Girls stayed aggressive until the end of the game, with the hope of upsetting the first ranked team in Division II.”

The Lady Warriors face off against the Stony Point Tigers in their last game of the season on home turf on Saturday, April 13.