Girls lacrosse wins first game against El Segundo

On Fri., March 17, the girls lacrosse team played their first game against El Segundo High School, winning the game 6-4 by keeping their defense strong in the second half and holding onto their two point lead.This was the first time these two teams have played each other and most of the Samo athletes were expecting to lose this game. “I was expecting them to be a really challenging team,” Iris Watanabe (’18) said. “More than half of their team are soccer players so we were all expecting them to be really fast and never stop running.”Coach Justine Bierne was very impressed by how the players improved from their previous games. “My expectations were very tempered for this game,” Bierne said. “We were down four players and on top of that the coach for El Segundo is the old coach for Samo. She knows all the girls and we knew they were ready for us but the girls just played lights out.”Bierne’s goal for the next game and throughout the rest of the season is to work on the mindset of all the players. She saw how low the energy was at the beginning of the game and those are the types of things she knows need quick fixing. The co-captains, Watanabe and Lily Reynaldos (’17), both agreed that the team played a very disorganized game in the first half. Even though they were able to score, there was not enough communication to take a demanding lead. The opposing team didn’t have as high of a skill level as they were anticipating, and their teammates were able to help bring the intensity needed to win.“Our team really cooperated at the end where at first our attack was awful and no one was listening to each other or coach. Eventually when everyone started listening the game got great,” Reynaldos said. “Our defense was amazing, our middies were amazing and everyone was playing their parts.”