Exeter’s Best Lax Year, Andover Still a Contender at the End of the Season
Big Red girls’ lacrosse suffered a disappointing loss in its last game of the 2014 campaign. The team lost to Andover 8-13 on Friday and dropped to 11-5 for the season. This season was still Exeter’s best year since 2010, but the team would have loved to grab the win, as it was Big Red’s fifth straight loss to Andover.
The team felt that it could have played better. “I know that we are a much better team than them, but we just did not play up to our ability that day. We started up by a couple of goals, but they had a couple girls who shot very well and they moved the ball very well throughout the game,” senior captain Leo Liautaud said.
Exeter did get out to a 5-1 lead, but Andover’s potent offense brought the team back to grab a 6-5 lead heading into halftime. After Big Blue went ahead at halftime, they got on a roll and went on a 5-1 scoring run to open the half. Down 11-6 with 8 minutes left in the game, Big Red challenged themselves to make one last run. The team scored two more goals, but it was not enough as Andover went on to celebrate the win. “We just never hit our stride in the second half,” lower Jacie Lemos said.
After the first few minutes of the game, the girls stopped communicating well and completing passes. Andover jumped on the team’s mistakes and turned them into goals.
“Our defense stuck with them really well actually and Kat had some amazing saves,” Liautaud said. “I think for us we just did not work with each other as we have in other games. We simply did not connect with one another on the field well and the communication was not good either.”
Despite the loss, the team allowed themselves to think back to the wonderful season they had. Coach Breen spoke to the team after the game to tell them to not dwell on the loss. “Coach Breen told us how proud she was of us because of how much we improved from the previous season,” prep Bella Edo said.
Of course the seniors were the most disappointed with the loss. “We really wanted to win it for the seniors, and they were pretty sad after the game,” Edo said.
With a five win improvement from last season and numerous wins against teams they were expected to lose to, the team has plenty to be proud of. Most of the team will be returning next season, as only four seniors on the team will be graduating. Even though not much was expected of the team this year, big things will be expected of Big Red next year. This squad will only improve as it grows older and develops more chemistry on the field.