Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/1/10
Editors note: Mercy College (N.Y.) freshman goalie Lauren Mateja (Upper Merion) is blogging regularly on Phillylacrosse.com in conjunction with Mercy. The Mustangs currently are 4-2 and Mateja has played in goal in every minute.
March 30, 2010
Wow—who would have ever thought that spring break could be such a busy time? I’ve been using the week off to catch up on some of my online class work, and to get ahead in my readings for all of my classes. With our game versus Dominican today postponed, I’ve finally found the time to write another entry!
After a weekend with my family, I returned Sunday night to an empty dormitory. It was so strange to walk through the hallways and not see anyone. Upon coming back, Jackee cooked up some tacos for a late night meal.
On Tuesday, we went to the Dobbs Ferry High School to help teach lacrosse to the team there. Similarly to us, it’s their first year of a varsity lax program. It looks like the Dobbs Ferry girls are definitely going to be a strong team in the near future. All of those girls seemed so excited to be playing lacrosse and really took in the tips we gave them. Later in the week, Jackee, Callie, Brittany and I went to their scrimmage against Valhalla to referee. Both teams played with a ton of heart and showed a love for the game. It was great to see lacrosse expanding to a new group of players.
For the most part, practice was pretty intense over the week. After a one-goal loss to Chestnut Hill, we definitely needed to realize what our mistakes were and fix them before our first game under the lights. Generally, practice revolved around working on the transition between defense and offense. And as it turns out, the emphasis on transition really helped.
On a freezing Friday night, we took the field against a scrappy Lancaster Bible team. The Chargers showed that the cold got to them, though, as we raced to a 21-5 win. The defense was effective at stopping Lancaster Bible’s drives to goal, causing them to turnover the ball for us to transition to the offensive end; we went 11 for 12 on our clearing plays, a much improved statistic since our 11 for 23 performance against Ramapo. Despite the chill, the parents still hosted a tailgate after the game.
Since our game today versus Dominican was postponed, the next time we take the field is Saturday in a scrimmage against Nassau Community College. We’re definitely looking forward to playing against them, since they proved to be great competition for us in fall ball. There’s supposed to be some real spring weather (apparently almost 70 degrees!) so let’s hope the rain goes away after today!
Tags: Upper Merion
