The ConVal girls’ lacrosse team benefits from an influx of new players this spring, and coach Kevin Carne hopes to capitalize on the incoming athletes while bringing the inexperienced bunch up to speed as quickly as possible.
“I would say half my team has never played,” Carne said after Wednesday’s 15-3 loss to visiting Inter-Lakes-Moultonborough. “Fourteen seniors on this team. They’re all great kids. That the biggest problem you have is that you don’t have enough time. It’s just development as I told them. We’re just going to get better. That’s the whole thing. It’s a good group of girls, but we really need to get better.”
ConVal already had a slew of experienced returning seniors, including Makayla Lamothe, Zadie Marshall, Nora Whicker, Alex Akerly, Charley Pyle-Cunningham and Rowan McClusky, but they’ve added some new players of all grade levels, from incoming freshmen to junior Olivia Healey and even senior volleyball star Ivy Armstrong-McEvoy, and their multi-sport skillsets are translating well to lacrosse. Missing Marshall and injured junior captain Emma O’Brien, the Cougars didn’t show the visiting Lakers everything they are capable of during Wednesday’s game. ConVal is still working on their ground ball prowess and their downfield cradling, which has led to an overabundance of turnovers thus far. And when you’re turning the ball over, you’re putting your goalie at risk, and that was just where junior keeper Kierra Deloria found herself time and again.
The result was a lopsided loss that dropped them down to 0-2. “We are getting a quick baptism by fire, without a doubt,” Carne said. The Cougars showed some flashes, however, when they were able to carry the ball through the midfield and set up their offense in the Lakers’ zone. Whicker, usually the playmaker to set up other attackers, scored two of ConVal’s three goals by herself.
“This game, it was hard, but it really clicked for everyone,” Whicker said after the game. “Second game of the season, everyone kind of realized what they need to do and what they need to get done.”
Armstrong-McEvoy, who seems to naturally excel in every sport in which she tries her hand, made a coast-to-coast run culminating in a spin-o-rama goal, the first of her short career.
“Ivy scored her first goal,” Whicker said. “It’s her first year playing. It just shows that as long as you’re confident and you’re confident in yourself, you can really get it done.”ConVal’s hopeful bounceback game at Belmont last Friday was postponed; the Cougars were set next to host Campbell Monday afternoon, then host Plymouth on Thursday.
“We made the playoffs last year and that was great,” Whicker said. “We’re hoping to do that again, really pushing ourselves and making sure all the new players are really pushing themselves to be the best version of theirselves for the team.”