The women’s varsity lacrosse team faced off against National Cathedral School (NCS) on Wednesday, April 24. GDS suffered a 13–6 loss on their home turf.
GDS was missing 11 of their 24 players for the game, leading to the team having a limited selection of players coming off the bench. The team only had one player for substitution throughout the entire game. Players were absent due to injury, senior skip day and Theater Lab. GDS has struggled with depth on multiple occasions this season; they played without substitutions in last week’s match against Madeira.
The Hoppers won the first draw of the game due to a violation by NCS. Both teams began the game with defensive stops. NCS quickly followed up on the defense-heavy start, running downfield on a counter attack and scoring the first goal of the game on a shot by a wide-open NCS player.
The game started slowly, as both teams worked to maintain possession on offense and avoid an aggressive gameplan. “When we have the ball, we really have to take the wind out of the sails and possess,” head coach Parker Benedict explained. “The more that we can possess and have the ball down on our defensive end, it’s less work that our defenders are doing and less back and forth that our midfielders are doing.”
NCS moved down the field swiftly, showing off quick ball movement and smart passes, leading to a pass inside to an attacker who quickly extended NCS’ lead. They scored the final goal of the first quarter a few minutes later, going into the break with a 3–0 lead over the Hoppers.
Sophomore Maimouna Barry began the game as a defender but rotated up to attack to score GDS’ first goal of the game on a penalty shot in the second quarter. Sophomore Alexis Rayford followed the goal with two consecutive goals of her own to tie the game at three. NCS responded with three unanswered goals as the first half whistle blew. NCS ended the half with a 6–3 lead in a tight, hard-fought game.
In the second half, NCS scored seven goals in a row to run away with the game. They kept possession of the ball and scored goals on counter attacks, which helped contribute to the outbreak of scoring. Sophomore Willa Wible scored two goals to cut the lead down to seven, but the scoring ended there, giving NCS the 13–6 victory as the game came to a close.
The GDS women’s varsity lacrosse team will play their next game on the road against Flint Hill on Tuesday, April 29 at 4:30 p.m.