Girls' Lacrosse Unable to Come Back Despite Late Rally

After making a two hour drive to Marion, Massachusetts, Big Red girls’ lacrosse fell to Tabor Academy on Saturday with a final score of 16-11. It was a slow-paced game, and Exeter never quite found its groove, as Tabor took away the team’s strengths, dictating the flow of the game. With Tabor only a few spots ahead of Exeter in the national rankings, the girls knew that this was a winnable game and should at least have been close. Big Red simply did not play up to their own standards and find themselves in the midst of a two game losing streak.Going into the last two games of the season against two tough teams, Deerfield and Andover, this is not the form that Big Red hoped to be in.However, lower Bronwyn Shields believes that this is just a mild slump. “We know from beating teams we weren't expecting to beat that we can do anything we put our minds to. We all know we could have beaten Tabor,” Shields said.The team let the game get away from them early. The girls were not winning draws, normally a strong suit for the squad, and everyone was playing much too slow. “We basically lost the draw control every time which ultimately lost us the game,” lower Noa Siegel said. Losing the draws was due more to the size of many girls on Tabor’s team rather than a lack of effort on Big Red’s part. The team found themselves down 10-5 at halftime.Unfortunately, senior captain Hannah Wellington was not able to play due to illness, which weakened the team’s defense. Wellington did attempt to pump the team up at halftime, allowing the girls to come into the second half strong to make it close, making it 13-10 with a few minutes to go. In the end, though, more lost draws and defensive lapses led to Tabor regaining a big lead, one which it would hold on to.Despite 11 goals, the team’s offense never seemed to fully click into gear. This is in large part due to the fact that the team face-guarded lower Jacie Lemos, the team’s leading scorer, for most of the game. In turn this took away Exeter’s fast break opportunities, as Lemos does most of her damage on the fast break.Even though the score ended up being somewhat lopsided and the girls did not play up to their potential, the team still had opportunities to take control of the game. The team had six goal-scoring opportunities that they could not capitalize on, which may well have cost them the game. It was a tough loss to swallow.Prep Emily Ryan spoke for the whole team in describing the loss: “It was sad.”Big Red take on Deerfield Academy this Saturday at 1:30. The team will try to get back on track with Andover looming on the horizon.