When you’ve got a pack of seasoned seniors on defense, it can be a powerful, powerful weapon. Especially when they’ve played a big role in a run to the state finals and faced off against a challenging schedule the last couple of years.
“We’ve been playing together for a long time on varsity,” said Western Albemarle girls lacrosse senior defender Hannah Curry. “It’s the same group of seniors and even the juniors that are coming up we’ve just practiced a lot. We have a really good team dynamic, I think we read each other really well and we hold each other accountable.”
Western Albemarle’s girls lacrosse team leaned on that defense Friday night in a rivalry clash with Monticello and rolled to a 16-3 win over the Mustangs.
The Warriors’ defense that also includes seniors Logan Foster, Lily Elder and Julia Haws focused on quickly trapping and doubling in key situations, sticking to their system and it showcased how much that experienced group has gelled along with keeper Catherine Adams, who is in her first year as the starter and had 12 saves against the Mustangs.
“We had the slides coming in, we had the crashes and the help defense was really good,” Haws said. “We improved our communication, we did better with that than we had in past games.”
That solid defense also helped spark some offense as the Warriors got some things going in transition to create unsettled situations for the Mustangs’ defense.
“We’ve worked a lot on transition, especially yesterday in practice, we worked a lot on the fastbreak from the midfield,” Curry said.
Hanna Schuler poured in four goals to lead the Western offense, including three straight during a stretch of the first half that helped the Warriors build a 10-1 halftime lead. Sammie Magargee also finished with a hat trick while Hannah Plantz, Kate Snyder and Kara Repich each scored twice. Mady Starsia finished with a goal and three assists for Western to help spur the strong offensive performance.
The Warriors will host Powhatan Tuesday at 6 p.m. while the Mustangs will take on Charlottesville at 5:30 p.m. the same day.
