The Falcons defeat their long standing rival, Lafayette. Girls Lacrosse won their game 20-7 on April 15 at home. The girls lacrosse program has experienced record numbers of involvement this school year.
Head coach David Gibson said that Lafayette is a very difficult team to face, and the team established a lead early on in the game, which they have struggled with this season.
“Lafayette is always a challenging team to play against so we knew it was important to come out and establish our game early. We have started slow in most of our games this season and have relied on having a strong second half. Leading up to the game we spent time at practice focusing on increasing the efficiency of our offense and using other areas of the field to start plays,” Gibson said.
Sometimes the other team can get in your head while you’re playing. Freshman Emery Gregston explained that she feels playing their rival contributed to an increase of performance anxiety, but the team was able to rise above.
“We came out really hard and we just played our game not worrying about our opponent. Our rivalry against Lafayette it caused a lot of emotions, and just listening to other coaches can cause anger but I think we were able to keep it in check and overcome,” Emery said.
With the high number of Seniors, many girls have been celebrating major milestones. Gibson says who and what the team members have accomplished this season.
“We have had a few career celebrations this season: [Senior Madeline] Gregston with 100 goals, [Senior] Maddie Gibson with 100 points and both [Senior] Maria Anderson and [Senior] Margaret Schneiders with 100 ground balls. It [is] exciting to see girls dedicate themselves to their sport and their team. Those accomplishments do not exist in a vacuum; each of those have been aided by teammates who play hard for each other,” Gibson said.
Team captain Madeline described how achieving the milestone of 100 goals felt, and how her sister Emery assisted the goal.
“[One hundred goals is] definitely an accomplishment for me, I was super proud of myself and very excited that my sister assisted it, which made us very happy,” Madeline said.
The sole freshman on varsity Emery Gregston said that she feels like the increase of interest in lacrosse is going to help next season when 12 of their players graduate.
“I think it’s really great that we have more girls coming out, especially with the number of seniors it’s going to be very difficult to build a team next year. We have 12 seniors so next year will be a little challenging. I also love to see lacrosse being recognized in St. Louis, because it’s not very prevalent so seeing it get more attention is nice,” Emery said.
