The Lady Panther Girls Lacrosse team played Berkley High School for another win, leaving them at 9-1 for the current season.
During the first water break, senior Grace Owens said the team was off to a slow start. “Well right now we’re getting off to a slow start, but I hope that during the half time, we’ll make some adjustments that are necessary so we can pick the intensity back up,” said Owens.
Sophomore Lexi Ashby assisted and scored for the team, which she said has a lot of new freshman. “The majority of our team is freshmen, and I think that they’ve really stepped up their game. They are proving to everyone that they can play at the next level, and they’re working really hard,” said Ashby.
“I think that the addition of all of them has bettered our team because we’re a much harder working team now, and I think that we’re going to have a good season.” Senior Delaney Turton assisted and scored multiple times throughout the game as well.
“I feel like this isn’t our best game, but we have big games tomorrow so it’s like a good practice game leading up to that. We definitely need to work on our stick skills and catching and throwing, but it’s a fun game on Friday,” said Turton.
Turton said their strengths lie in their unity as a team and their weakness is in transferring that to the field. “We work really well together. We understand how everyone plays together, but sometimes we have troubles transforming that onto our skills on the field as far as that goes with stick skills, with our shots, with our passing and stuff. So a lot of times that can be kind of detrimental for us, but we get past it the next game,” said Turton.
“We’re playing pretty hard, pretty intense,” said junior Alexandra Schobert. “We’re just trying to keep the energy up.”
Team manager and former player, senior Hannah Diasti spoke positively of the season and the team’s dynamic.
“I think the season’s going really well so far. We have a lot of freshmen this year, but we seem to be working well together. The team is really clicking, which I think is helping with the fluid-ity of the game and how the girls work together on the field. I think they have potential to go far this year, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the season turns out,” said Diasti. Sophomore Kelsey Epstein #11 also assisted in the team’s victory.
“The first half was a little rough, but we’re really picking it up. And I’m proud of all the freshman for stepping it up – because that’s mostly our team now. The upperclassmen are doing a great job,” said Epstein.
“Keeping up he positivity, doing a good job so far. Goalies are killing it, too.” Coach Jayne Chapman was positive about the game’s outcome and optimistic for the season’s future.
“I’m happy with the outcome,” said Chapman. “I thought we played pretty sloppy, so that was a game where we probably should have had better control, but at the end of the day, everyone played and had some fun.”
The team remains undefeated in the district with high hopes. “That was a district matchup so we’re 9-1 on the season now. We’ll hopefully play our last district game next Friday, and if that’s a win, we’ll go in ranked seated first for the post season. We have aspirations to go farther than last year, which would mean out of the first round of regionals,” said Chap-man.