Park lacrosse went out on the back foot in the first half with Hopkins scoring first and fast. Hopkins dominated the first half of the game. Park had key turnovers, and some goals with those things the girls fought back in the second half. Ultimately, Park lost 13-9 to the Royals at their home stadium May 28.
Coach Kate Pearson said the team played great even though they lost in sections. They practiced the day before in preparation for the Tuesday game.
“Our team played as hard as we possibly could and we practiced yesterday to prepare for it and they executed what we practiced,” Pearson said.
Junior Ailish Fitzpatrick said the play in the midfield and turnovers were well executed. Those were her highpoints in the game for Park.
“What went well for us was probably in the midfield, on the ride and just turning over the ball,” Fitzpatrick said. “That was our strong point during the game.”
According to sophomore Riley Ridgeway communication and team bonding is what the team needs to improve on next year. Since the seniors are leaving, helping the younger athletes grow into the sport is important.
“We need to work on our communication and for next season since we’re losing our seniors we need to work on bonding while bringing up our younger athletes,” Ridgeway said.
The practice prior to the game was to help the team improve on what didn’t go as well during the regular season game Fitzpatrick said. The practice had drills that focused on how Hopkins specifically plays as a team.
“For sections as a team, we had a practice that was really targeted towards Hopkins. We did drills that would apply more in this game that we lacked in our last game against them,” Fitzpatrick said.
According to Ridgway the team did a good job of applying what was worked on in practice into the game setting.
“We exceeded in the stuff we worked on in practice,” Ridgway said. “We’ve been working on improving the same things and executing them.”
Pearson said the team’s goal was to work as cohesively as possible together. Not focusing on themselves, which was successful all throughout this year.
“Our biggest goal was to be able to work better as a team this year and not have individual players, and we really did that very well throughout the whole season,” Pearson said.
Parks’ season ended with the loss against Hopkins in sections, ending the season with six wins and eight losses.
