Girl’s lacrosse enjoyed a successful 2015 season, finishing 12-6 and making a first-round playoff appearance in the South, Group 1 Tournament. The Pirates fell to Haddonfield by a score of 12-8 in the playoff contest.
Despite the first-round loss, the season was a huge success for the girl’s lacrosse program, which went 5-12 in 2014.
“I’ve definitely learned as a coach to look at each part of the season and find small victories and instead of at the end of season saying we lost in first round,” head coach Laura Curran said.
“Those small goals we set that we did reach just made this such a successful season. Coming off a 5-12 season to 12-5 (regular season) was fantastic. I am so proud and so happy that they fought everyday. We lost bad a couple of games and we came out to practice and they all knew we needed to fix things. Even with advanced testing and prom coming up, they were all committed. I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish.”
The Pirates opened the season with a 9-8 loss to Holy Cross, but then reeled off six consecutive wins to move to 6-1. Rancocas Valley came to town, ending the Pirates streak and send them on a brief, three-game losing streak. The squad answered that with another lengthy winning streak. Their second streak of the season lasted five games and was also snapped by R.V.
Coach Curran explained how her team was able to sustain to lengthy win streaks this season.
“Our first winning streak after Holy Cross, I remember coming to practice each day and saying to the entire program, ‘This is big for us. We need to keep this run going. We need to sustain this winning streak because we need this as a program.’ We were coming off a weak record from last year and our morale was down from last year. I kept reminding them how important it is to work as a program and not just the 12 on the field for varsity. We celebrated each win and wanted to keep the feeling going.”
Two of their wins this year came against Northern Burlington and Coach Curran was very pleased with those victories.
“Beating Northern Burlington at a time in the season when we beat them the first time. We were down by three or four and we ended up fighting and coming back to win by two. In the second game I stressed that we have to beat them a second time or the first time means nothing. When you split with a team like that, the first win doesn’t mean as much because they were able to retaliate against you. They were very comparable to us as far as skill level.”
On the final game of the season in a 16-8 victory over Maple Shade, senior Grace Shallow recorded her 100th career varsity goal.
Speaking of the seniors, Coach Curran was happy with how all nine of her seniors took on leadership roles this season.
“It really starts with leadership on the team. Fortunately this year it was all nine of the seniors, but I also saw a lot of juniors stepping up and even some sophomores. Because we had those conversations, that whether you play 0 mins on varsity or all 50 mins on varsity, you are definitely important to this program. When I started to put pressure, in a good way, on younger girls, I think that in the future it will really benefit us as a team because they know it is important to speak up no matter your grade.”
