The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
SENIORS SEE FRUIT OF HARD WORK
Senior Night honors girls who started Westlake lacrosse
Senior night for any sport is a night of high emotions, memories and reflection.
For the girls of Westlake, senior night meant a bit more for eight seniors who started with the program on day one when it was just a club team. Now celebrating its first full varsity season, the Demons showed a lot of grit and heart to come back on St. Joseph Academy on May 4, but fell just short of a complete comeback, losing 10-8.
On a day that soaked the new turf field at Westlake, the Demons came out and were treated to the newer surface for one of only a couple of opportunities this season.
Putting the weather issues aside, the Jaguars came out in this one roaring and ready to go after a tough loss to Gilmour Academy on Tuesday. Showing poise and possession on offense to start, St. Joe’s ran out to a 6-1
lead to start the game.
That was when Westlake coach Erin Kehn called a timeout to regroup her team with about seven minutes left to play in the first half.
“We had to get a timeout just to get our heads back on our shoulders and we get really flustered when we are losing by a lot and then the girls sort of break down,” Kehn said. “So we need to regroup and I always tell the girls to work hard. That’s the No. 1 thing I care about. The rest will come if you work hard.”
Showing the true measure of the program, Westlake fought back from the five-goal deficit and kept chipping away until a goal by senior Sophia Paul seconds into the second half tied the game up at 6-6.
The Demons struggled to maintain possession with slick conditions and the turf setting.
“We saw that basically the other team wasn’t as good as we came out thinking they were going to be because we lost to them last year and we knew we could have beat them,” Paul said. “We came out thinking, ‘We’re equal, we can be better,’ so we focused on our skills and getting ground balls and doing the little things.”
St. Joe’s had a counterpunch waiting for the Demons after the game-tying goal, but the Demons fought back twice down a pair with a goal from sophomore Dhenuka Suthaharan and Paul’s second goal.
In the end, the Jaguars’ offense was just too much for the Demons, despite a strong effort in goal from junior Lauren Guay, who finished with six saves.
Reflecting a bit back on the program from where it was three years ago to where it stands now, Kehn gave all of the credit to her seniors who started all of this and have seen it through to a varsity senior night.
“The seniors started the program when it was a club team, so it’s been a club team for three years and now it’s a varsity program, so I think this senior group is really important to them and it means a lot to them because they started it all,” Kehn said. “It’s their team, they built it, so I think especially at the end of the season it’s going to be emotional and it’s going to be bitter sweet.”
Being a part of the program since day one, Paul said the night was especially meaningful to all of the girls who put in countless hours and see youngsters wanting to thrive off what they have seen these seniors do.
“Now we have youth teams in lacrosse in girls and we didn’t have,” Paul said.