Carlmont’s girls varsity lacrosse team continued their season-long losing streak this Wednesday at the hands of the Woodside Wildcats, suffering a defeat of 11-5.
The game against Woodside on March 15 was the fourth game in the Scots’ season. A week prior to the Woodside matchup, the Scots were defeated by the Burlingame Panthers with a final score of 6-5. Similarly, the Wildcats lost to the Panthers 10-9 in their last game.
“We were anticipating a pretty tight game because they only lost to Burlingame by one goal, and we just recently lost to Burlingame. So, we were thinking it was going to be an intense, tight game,” said Woodside midfielder Madi Escobar, who was the highest scorer in Wednesday’s game.
The game started with an early score for the Wildcats. Escobar put points on the board within the first five minutes of the game. The Wildcats struck fast and followed this up when Sophiya Karer, a sophomore attack, scored in the 10th minute of the game.
The Wildcats stayed energized as they scored three more times before Carlmont called a timeout with 10 minutes left in the half.
After the timeout, the Scots came back firing, as junior attack Leah Williams scored the first goal for the Scots. Woodside quickly responded with a goal scored by senior attack Savannah Karlston.
With only three minutes left in the first half, sophomore attack and captain Samantha Leavitt made a goal, resulting in a score of 6-2 going into halftime.
Although the Scots were behind at halftime, head coach Wendy Lyn was determined to keep spirits high for the remainder of the game.
“My message to the team at halftime was, ‘Keep playing hard. Do not give up. Keep running,'” Lyn said.
As the second half started, Woodside’s quick offense scored again as sophomore attack Farrah Caldwell made her first goal of the night.
The Scots then implemented a zone defense to try to hold off the Wildcats in the latter half of the game.
“We are always going to try to play the zone defense a little bit more until we get better because man-to-man is much easier to get through, but with zone defense, the players are able to work together and help each other,” Lyn said.
Offensively, Carlmont continued with three more goals scored by Leavitt. However, two additional goals from Escobar and Karer left the Wildcats victorious.
Although this was the fourth loss in a row for the Scots, they are working to improve their team chemistry as they play through the rest of the season.
“Our collaboration is the hardest part right now,” said senior middle and captain Annika Andersen. “I see a lot of potential and talent in this team. I know we can win, but we need to be able to work together more.”
Now, the Scots are looking ahead and are hoping to improve their collaboration in their next game against the Aragon Dons at home on Friday, March 17.
“There have been highs and lows in the season, but we are moving up now, so hopefully, we can continue,” Lyn said.
