Pioneers overpower Vikings
Prep girls lacrosse Strong first half not enough to help Valencia in a home game
Heading into Friday night’s game against Simi Valley, the Valencia girls lacrosse team re-evaluated what they considered to be a “win.”
The Vikings had just picked up a victory over St. Monica, but still weren’t happy with the result.
“We went to the locker room and just talked about the whole game and we were saying we won that game, but we weren’t playing as a team,” said Shelby Lewis.
“So we really had to think back to what actually was winning; playing well as a team, communicating as a team, not getting mad at each other when we were messing up.”
Even though Pioneers picked up an 11-7 win over Valencia, the Vikes’ ability to play more fluidly made the loss a little easier to swallow.
Valencia came out firing in the first half, scoring three goals in the initial 90 seconds. Katherine Lin, Katarina von Mecklenburg and Lewis each picked up
a goal apiece.
Von Mecklenburg added another near the eightminute mark and Lewis netted one with 38.6 seconds remaining in the half to keep the game tied at 5-5.
“The girls played an amazing game,” said coach Cynthia Hasseman. “They played as a team and that’s what I expect out of them and that’s what they did. They pulled it off.”
Simi Valley took a 6-5 lead heading into halftime, however, scoring with one second left on the clock.
Valencia scored twice more on the other side of the break – including a goal from Lewis, who was in her first game as a midfielder, for a hat trick.
“I was really nervous at the start,” Lewis said. “I just trusted myself, made sure I knew what I was doing … made sure I was calm. One thing that sucks when you are in lacrosse, if you’re not calm, your hands shake. When your hands shake, you can’t catch anything.”
The Pioneers piled on four goals in a span of six minutes, however, to secure the win.
“Defensively, they have a couple of strong plays that it took a few times for my girls to pick up on,” Hasseman said. “They did adapt to it very well and I really don’t know that they could’ve done any better.”