The Morgan girls lacrosse team did not have the season they would have hoped for last year. They finished with a record of 8-9-1, ending their season with a first round loss in states. This year, they plan to change the narrative. The team has been using the off season as an opportunity to improve both physically and mentally.
Although the season starts this week, the lacrosse team is already weeks into their preparation. Senior captain, Abby Stack stated “We have been playing winter league for four weeks now, and we are starting conditioning the week of March 16.”
Winter league is an opportunity for the players to participate in scrimmages indoors once a week. It takes place at the Wide World of Indoor Sports in Montville, Connecticut. This keeps the players in shape, improves the team chemistry, and gets them ready for the season.
“We ended with a record of 6-10, but this isn’t a good representation of how we played because we had to forfeit some games and we didn’t have our whole team,” said Stack.
Further than physically preparing, many players believe that a key factor to their success this year will be improving their team chemistry. Stack believes this was a huge contributing factor to their downfall last season.
“Last year we struggled to work together and bring out the best in each other. At times individual success was prioritized over team success,” Stack said.
Last year’s struggles are represented within the team’s statistics. The team ended with 69 assists and 152 goals, with the goal amount being more than double the number of assists. This suggests that many of the team goals came from individual efforts rather than team efforts.
“We hope to improve the team morale by having more pasta dinners and team bonding,” Stack said.
Holecz believes that the experience they have from past years will also help them improve their team chemistry. They have been playing with each other for many years and that involvement could become a huge advantage.
“We have played with each other since third grade, and now that we’re juniors we have more experience on the high school level. I think we have the possibility of doing great things this year”, Holecz said.
Holecz is hopeful for the season. With nineteen out of the twenty six girls from last year’s team returning, she thinks the team has the potential to make huge improvements in their record and team morale.
Assistant Coach, Ms. Gilbert also believes they will improve this year due to their experience. With many players returning from last year’s roster, a lot of the team already knows their strategies, plays, and the level it takes to play at the high school level.
“A lot of our returning players are really talented and have played together for a long time ,” said Ms. Gilbert.
The team only lost three seniors from last year’s team, two of which were ineligible to play due to injury. Furthermore, they have 10 out of 11 starters returning.
Ms. Gilbert plans to emphasize just focusing on being a team and working together, with everyone stepping up when they need to in order to fill the gaps.
Emma Holecz led the team last year in goals and assists, ending with 50 goals and 37 assists. She received first team all conference and first team all state. Juniors Emma Teuner and Nora Winsor are also key players returning, who both received second team all conference last season. Annabele Parent received honorable mention and will be returning as the team’s goalie.
When looking at the Shoreline Conference, Old Saybrook and Old Lyme have lost their major contributors. Although, Old Lyme has historically been strong, ending second in the Shoreline Conference last season and finishing 5-2 in conference. Valley is also a young team, only having one senior last season, so it will be a game worth watching this season. The Huskies will play Old Lyme on 4/7 and 5/13 and play Valley on 4/4 and 5/5.
The Morgan girls lacrosse team’s season officially starts on Saturday March 21st. They will compete in their first scrimmage on March 30th against Mercy High School.
