Girls Lacrosse Crushes Holderness School
Girls varsity lacrosse players in action. Courtesy of @exeterathletics
By ERIN HAN and JOONYOUNG HEO
The girls lacrosse team secured a crushing 14-3 victory over the Holderness School on April 29, both a crowning achievement of hard work and team spirit and one more bright spot in an exceptional record this season.
The game was a great experience for the lacrosse team all around. “It was awesome,” upper Willa Bazos said. “Exeter came out ready to play. Our attack shared the ball between a lot of us, which allowed us to go into running time because we were over 10 goals ahead of Holderness. Our goalie, Allie Bell, kept them from scoring hardly any goals.”
Once Exeter put enough distance from the other team on the scoreboard, the team had breathing room to include as many of their players as possible. “It was an especially fun game,” senior and team captain Nina Kellogg said. “Holderness wasn’t a very strong opponent and we got to put more of our players on the field. I think we had goals from at least 10 different people.”
“We were able to get an early lead,” lower Grace Benson said. “That let us rotate a lot of our players in different positions on the field, so it was a good experiment for the team. The whole game was really fun as well.”
The team’s success against Holderness was reflective of their entire season, boasting an undefeated streak thus far. Effective teamwork, as showcased on April 29, was a key factor. “Our team has exceptionally strong individual players, so our biggest hurdle in the beginning was working together as a team,” Kellogg said. “But w e ’ v e grown tremendously since the start of the season. When we have each other’s backs and work to create opportunities for each other, we’re unstoppable. And we’ve absolutely seen that in the latter half of this season.”
“This year, we started a new initiative to call ourselves bees,” upper Gigi Lannon said. “It was created by the captains to promote the idea of working and playing together more effectively, like in a beehive. It’s helped us play as a team and flow on the field. Because we have so many strong players, cooperation has made for great offense and defense. That was apparent in the Holderness game, where we won by more than 10 points.”
“We’ve definitely improved a lot over the past few months,” Benson said. “We have a lot of players with different responsibilities, and I think we’ve grown to really acknowledge each other’s strengths in the best way possible.”
The team looks to finish the rest of the season with the same consistency. “We had a pretty packed schedule with many away games and three-game weeks, which was especially challenging during midterms,” lower Sophie Rose Riopel said. “But the team did a really good job of staying focused on one game at a time. I’m looking forward to finishing strong. There’s a game this Wednesday, the SEAL Cup this weekend, and E/a.”
“I’m excited for the rest of the season as a whole,” Benson said. “Our record and poise as a team through a lot of difficult games gave our team a lot of internal support for each other. I think it’ll propel us through to the end of spring.”
“We only have a few big games left in the season,” Kellogg said. “There’s the Prep Invitational tournament hosted at Dexter School, where we’ll play the number one team, Sacred Heart. And, of course, we play Andover at home on Friday, May 26. But either way, we really have the best time together. I’m just excited to keep playing with this group of girls that I love so much.”
