A Day In the Life: Girls’ Varsity Lax

Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse prepares for a game against the New Hampton School on Wednesday. This is a tough opponent, and in past seasons the scores have been close. In the practices leading up to this Wednesday, we prepare specifically for this game.

It’s Monday, and we start our practice with a lift in the fitness center. Coach Craig Doran gives us sheets that detail the exercises and reps. These lifts are important to maintain strength throughout the season. “At the lifts there is always great team energy,” says prep Molly Longfield. Sometimes we do fitness testing, which includes vertical jumps, pull-ups and agility exercises. We get tested once or twice throughout the season to moderate our fitness. After the lift, we march out to the field as a team. On rainy days like today, we leave our bags in the team room and walk out with only our sticks. Our practice starts with partner-passing to warm up our hands. After that we move onto shooting drills. In our previous games, we have not scored as many goals as we should have, because we kept hitting the goalie with our shots. In order to beat New Hampton, we need to hit the net. 

Now is Tuesday—the last practice before the game. We have an early practice time which allows us to have a short, efficient practice. We come out to the fields right after classes and start with the usual passing and shooting drills to warm up our sticks. When Coach Breen, Coach Hayes, and Coach Marshall get to the field, we start our real warmup with a quick lap and stretches. Next, we form shuttle lines and some players warm the goalies up with eight-meter shots. Our first drill is one of our favorites: a man down drill starting from the crease. This exercise helps us move the ball on attack and forces the defense to slide and adapt quickly. After a competitive game, ending when either the defense or offense gets 10 points, we go into a seven on seven scrimmage. The focus during the scrimmage is to hone our offensive and defensive transitional skills in a game-like situation. We have been specifically working on quick, efficient passes around the perimeter so we can find an open cutter or space to drive the ball. Senior Peyton Sanborn explains how “our main focus is spreading out more and communicating on defense.” 

Today is Wednesday, game day, and unfortunately we lost to New Hampton 8-12 at their field. We had opportunities to score, but our shots went right to the goalie. In the upcoming practices we will continue to work on our shooting accuracy. The team is ready to get a win this Saturday against Holderness.