On Friday, March 31, the girls’ varsity lacrosse team played a non-league game against Saint Ignatius Preparatory (SI). SI has multiple division one commits and are still undefeated this season. Considering that Redwood has a huge new input of six freshmen, the young team almost upset SI with a final score of 9-7. Even though they are about four weeks through the season, this may have been the first night they clicked and worked together as a team.

The score at the end of the first half wasn’t in Redwood’s favor as they were down 6-2 at halftime. Junior Riley Peterson scored the only two goals for the Giants, but they weren’t ready to give in to the SI pressure. 

Starting the second half off strong, Redwood scored two back-to-back goals with shots from freshman Lucy Miller and junior Maya Mihara, narrowing the score to 6-4.

Peterson, who is committed to the San Diego State University lacrosse team is passionate about the importance of bonding between players in a team sport. 

“[We came] together and played as a team. I’ve never seen us do that before. It was the first time this season we all connected and worked as a whole unit, especially on the draws and on our offense; it just looked amazing,” Peterson said.

With about seven minutes left in the second half, Miller passed the ball to Peterson, and Peterson got fouled. She then slung the ball into the goal, bringing them up to a score of 6-5. SI came back with yet another goal extending their lead to 7-5 with five minutes left. However, a new addition to the team, freshman Lucy Jeffers thinks that the advancements her team made toward unity kept them in the game.

“Overall, we made a lot of improvements today. In general, we did great. As a team, we are just scratching the surface of working together, so I think cohesively offense and defense can take the next step forward,” Jeffers said. 

Jeffers also talked about the miscommunication in the defensive area and on the draws that led SI to increase their lead further.

 “We could have been more talkative, especially on the draw, and just being able to communicate a little better probably would have helped us with positioning a few times. But, I think again, an amazing improvement from what we’ve seen before,” Jeffers said.

SI scored two more goals in the last two minutes. Miller and Peterson scored the last two goals, closing the game with a score of 9-7; SI won.

“The most memorable part of the game was how we can take a team like SI, which is a powerhouse, and change momentum in our favor. And even though we probably had less experience on our hands, we held our own and showed them something,” Jeffers said.

For their next game, the Giants are coming together and planning to work on their collaboration between defense and offense.

“If we keep on this track of improvement,  I think there will be another MCAL championship in the near future,” Peterson said.

The Giants hope to bounce back in their next game on April 4, when they face Terra Linda away on their turf.