By Bryan Rothamel / FlucoSportsNet.com
PALMYRA — You don’t often hear congratulations to a team after a loss but you could hear it Tuesday night at Costello Stadium.
The Fluvanna girls’ lacrosse team lost to Liberty-Bealeton 13-11 in the program’s first varsity game ever.
“I thought a great showing for a first outing,” said Fluvanna head coach Jenny Payne. “[Liberty] has had a team for several years. We were leading the first half quite a bit but let them get back into it. I’ll accept a two-point loss for the first outing in school history.”
The game started even better than the beautiful night. Liberty won the opening draw and quickly fired a shot. Fluvanna keeper Elizabeth Jensen stonewalled the attempt. Less than two minutes later, junior attacker Megan Graham took the ball behind the goal.
Graham cut back in front of the cage, spun and fired in the first Fluvanna goal.
“It was incredible. Megan has been around the longest and is a leader on the team. She’s one of our team captains. For her to take control and get that first goal sets the precedent,” said Payne.
Sophomore Clay Conner won the ensuing draw. She weaved through the Eagle defense and blasted in a second Fluvanna goal. Five minutes later Allie Gsell scored the third.
“I was really, really excited about all of my teammates being together and making those first few goals to start off the season,” said Conner.
Fluvanna extended its lead to 5-1 before Liberty fought back into the game to tie right before halftime.
The teams traded goals in the beginning of the second half. Liberty took its first lead at 9-8 with 14 minutes left in the game then scored another. Hannah Lascano and Rachel McDonald each found the back of the net to tie it at 10 with just under seven minutes remaining.
Liberty again built on its lead, this time to 12-10 with four minutes to go. With just over a minute remaining, Conner got her final goal but the Eagles added another before time expired.
“We just held it together as a team and I think that help getting it back to where it needed to be,” said Conner of the comeback. “A little more conditioning will help to get it back up there. I think we did really well coming back.”
Conner paced Fluvanna with five goals. Graham added three goals. Jensen had 13 saves.
While Payne and company are happy to get to play, the team still has things to work on to get the program’s first win.
“We gave them too many fast breaks. We wanted to run beside them instead of getting to the spot and beating them,” said the upbeat Payne.
“It was a great first performance. I think it’s going to help a lot to just build confidence when we play them again next week,” said Graham.
Fluvanna will next play at Liberty on March 20. Game is set for 7:30 p.m. in Bealeton.
