By Gigi Hume

Coming off a season with a new coach and a team of underclassmen, this year the goal of the Lady Tillers of Girls’ Lacrosse is to further hone their skills and take advantage of a new, strong upperclassmen base. Unfortunately, following a tough 4-9 loss to the Notre Dame Knights on Monday, the team was hoping to redeem themselves in a match against the Rosary Royals—who they beat twice last year—in their match this past Tuesday.

At the start, middie Daphne Taatuaa (#11) tussled with Rosary’s #4 who attempted a shot that seasoned goalie Citlalli Mora (#23) blocked with ease. From there, defender Sophia Aleman (#8) quickly recovered the groundball and made a quick pass to Taatuaa and after a failed initial attempt at a shot, she took her time to find the perfect angle, crease-rolled, and scored. Coming off this success, after an initial struggle to pick up the ball at the draw middie Andrea Palma (#7) swiftly picked up the groundball and after a bout of passing between attacker Sam Hernandez (#4) and Tautua (#11), attacker Samantha Cantoran (#16) drove into the crease and successfully shot, making the score 2-0 in a matter of minutes.

But Rosary was not willing to go down without a fight, as #9 and #7 both shot laser-like goals in rapid succession despite our defense’s valiant efforts to keep them at bay. Fortunately, middie Lizbeth Cabrera (#9) caught a recovered ball from Royals’ attempt at scoring and ran downfield before passing to Hernandez (#4) who hurled it into the goal. But Rosary’s #9 was on a mission, and with help from their #4 and #12, they drove up the score to 3-7 by the end of the half.

Throughout the course of the game, Cabrera flaunted her endurance from her sprints up and down the field and Taatuaa, Cantoran, and Palma exhibited synergy as they smoothly passed between each other which culminated the Tillers’ fourth and final goal. However, it just wasn’t enough to fend against Rosary’s aptitude at finding holes in our defense, culminating in a definitive 4-13 final score.

For junior co-captain Andrea Palma, she hopes these losses will serve as a learning experience, saying that while they, “…kept [their] heads up during the first half…[they] could improve on having a stronger defense.”

But with a full season ahead, there is only room for improvement for these promising Lady Tillers.

Girls Lacrosse next game is Tuesday, March 13 against the El Modena Vanguards at 3:15 PM. Come out and support!