Following a 17-1 loss against Chanhassen, head coach Kate Pearson said the effort was apparent, but when competing against a strong team and being faced with a disappointing outcome, the team realizes that it needs more practice to be prepared for future games.

“Chanhassen has a strong team — they’re top three in the state, and I expect they’ll go far. They are well-conditioned, and every girl on their team has very strong lacrosse skills. Knowing that and coming into this game, we realized it was going to be a challenge,” said Pearson. “I don’t think our girls played nearly as well as they could have. We played a little hesitant, and this was not our best game. Overall, we’re proud of our girls and their effort, but we need to get focused and practice the fundamentals we have been working on all year. We hope to show up better in our future games.”

Sophomore Ashley Berry said the team is looking forward to sections and bettering their play in anticipation for the games. 

“I’m feeling confident going into sections. We had a tough schedule this year, and our record doesn’t look great, but we’ve been playing together, and we’ve been playing well. I am hopeful our section game and our tournament are going to go well for us,” Berry said. “Our communication could use some work. Being able to anticipate during the game and find our groove again — knowing where each other is, how we work, where we’re going to be — is what we currently need. We just need to bond more as players.”

For junior Meg Ridgway, the strength of the team has been evident throughout the games and the team needs to be focused on bettering their transitions from offense to defense throughout the games.

“The transitions of going from defense to attack and working in, around and on attack under pressure will be our main focuses,” Ridgway said. “Though we have things to improve on, we have had many highlights throughout the season.”

According to Pearson, with the team focused on improving their mentality and aggressively practicing their attack and defensive strategies, the section games are ones to anticipate.

“We’ll have to see where we’re seated, but we have a lot of momentum. We need to make sure that we come with a good attitude and at 100%, or playing our highest level of lacrosse. It is most likely we’ll be missing one of our strongest players, but that being said, I’m optimistic about our first game,” Pearson said. “We will just work on playing collectively as a team and playing more cohesive, trusting in each other’s plan. We need to be confident and full force all across the field. That starts at attack, midfield and defense — all the way down the field and scoring. We need to play our best game if we’re going to have a chance of winning throughout sections.”

Park girl’s lacrosse will tackle their first section game 4:30 p.m. May 25 at Rogers High School.