Going undefeated through their first eight games, including three in league play, the girls’ lacrosse team entered their match on Mar. 20 against Archbishop Mitty looking to continue its strong start to the season. With the team tied for first place in the West Bay Athletic League (WBAL) with Archbishop Mitty and Hillsdale High School, the match was a test to determine who would come out on top. In the end, the Panthers were unable to maintain their momentum and lost to the Monarchs 13-8.

“This game was a good wake-up call for us,” senior defensive player Brinda Iyer said. “We need to just really lock it in and start taking it super serious from the first second. I think it’s just what we needed to really make sure that we’re putting our 100% effort.”

The Panthers’ slow start was evident in the first quarter, as the Monarchs consistently drove the ball and maintained aggressive gameplay, throwing the Panthers’ defense off kilter. The Monarchs frequently won over ground balls and seized control of the ball during face-offs, fueling the Panthers’ early 6-2 deficit heading into the second quarter.

According to junior Mia Hoffman, the team expected to win, given that they had beaten a previous opponent the Monarchs had lost to, resulting in the Panthers’ poor performance and drive at the beginning.

“We underestimated the team that we played today at the beginning, but throughout the game, I think we got a lot better than the last game we had, and we really started to pass and catch a lot better than we did,” Hoffman said.

Although the Panthers initially struggled to gain possession, they maintained dynamic gameplay, attempting to seize any opportunity to win the ball back and find routes to evade defenders.

“We showed that we really want to win in our ground balls, and our aggressiveness was really good this game,” freshman Audrey Wuebbling said.

After regrouping in their halftime huddle, the Panthers reset for the second half and began making adjustments, asserting their dominance on offense. They continued to trail, but began bouncing back and slowly closing the gap in the second half of the game, locking down attacks and dodging past the Monarchs.

“Especially towards the end, our effort was really strong. You could tell that we really wanted to do our best, and we were a really good team,” Iyer said. “We got really fired up at the end. Our performance was a little slow coming in, so in the beginning, we just need to work on getting that same energy.”

But by the end of the fourth quarter, the Panthers were unable to overcome the five-point lead and assumed defeat, losing their undefeated league record.

“The whole game was a learning moment,” Hoffman said. “There are certain things that we could have worked on, but I think there’s a lot of things that we had been working on in practice that we got a lot better at in the games, and it’s just showing
improvement.”

The team will play Hillsdale High School and Castilleja School on March 25 and 26, respectively, both of which Iyer said are competitive teams that will push the Panthers to put in full effort.

“This game doesn’t define us, and we have a lot more games that will make sure to bring more energy into our warm-up so that it goes into our first quarter,” Wuebbling said. “We’re not really worried about this game, and we’ll just bounce back to the next one.”