Only having one day to prepare for a matchup against Churchill, girls’ lacrosse defeated the Bulldogs 14-3, on home turf on Wednesday, April 3.

The Cats had only played one game, but crushed the Blair Blazers 16-1 on March 21, causing them to have lots of momentum for Wednesday’s game.

Against the Bulldogs and under the lights, the Cats started the game with high intensity. After winning the draw, attackers were quickly on the opponent’s side.

“I think our offense was more confident in driving to goal and we were effective in transition…Our defense was very solid throughout the entire game,” senior Katie Dutko said.

Although since the Cats just came back from a break, they were a little rusty and their ball movement could have been cleaner during the first half.

On the defensive side, starters senior captain Anna Zucconi, junior Peyton Brown and seniors Lily Fisher and Ava Redmond held down the fort, and caused many turnovers for the opposing team.

Additionally, junior attacker Ginger Fishberg earned her 100th point in the final quarter. With her senior season left, she’s striving to raise that number as much as she can.

“It’s awesome to hit this milestone because it makes me feel like all my hard work from being a freshman to now has really paid off…I’m also ready to keep playing hard this year and I have the support of my teammates who give me assists to help me keep growing that number. I’m also excited to be able to come back next year and keep going,” Fishberg said.

On Friday, April 5, the Cats played on the Walt Whitman Viking’s turf in a heated rivalry but were defeated 6-5. In last year’s regional final, the Wildcats beat the Vikings 11-8, and hope to accomplish a win against the team once again.

Starting out strong, WJ won the first draw, taken by Krouse. Keeping the aggression going, Freshman attacker Becca Hymes was fouled after just one minute. However, the Whitman goalkeeper blocked the first shot of the game. Fueled by nerves and lack of pressure, Whitman scored at the 8:22 mark. After sprinting up the field and approaching the sideline, Zucconi got triple-teamed with six minutes left, ultimately pausing the play with a whistle by the referees.

Into the second quarter, senior goalkeeper Brett Wall made a huge save by preventing a foul shot from entering the goal and another amazing save with 5:01 left in the second quarter.

I could never play as well as I do without my defense, they’re a crucial part of the game. I think we could work a little bit on some ball handling skills because we work so hard to get the ball back and then doubt ourselves and lose it. But…we definitely made the game difficult for Whitman,” Wall said.

The offense had a great game and kept their press consistent throughout the end of the second quarter with a penalty goal by Hymes at the 6:00 mark and another by Krouse with just 25 seconds remaining in the quarter. Not surprisingly, this game was super low-scoring as the Vikings took a 3-2 lead going into halftime.

“On the offensive side I think we did well with getting shots off and drawing fouls, but I could have made more of my shots and caused more turnovers on defense,” Hymes said.

In the third quarter, Whitman scored two goals caused by poor pressure by the Cats. However, they continued to be aggressive and fight, which caused Krouse to score with 2:48 left, ending the third quarter 6-3 in favor of the Vikings.

During the final quarter, Fishberg scored just 2 minutes in and continued to stay aggressive and press her opponents throughout the whole quarter.

With 6:30 remaining, junior Mallory Booth received the ball and passed it to Fishberg, who threw it to junior Shae McCloskey who then scored, making the score 6-5 Whitman.

After Fishberg received a yellow card with 1:25 remaining, the Cats had to play man down. Since the Vikings had the ball, they decided to run the clock.

With much excitement from the WJ crowd, Zucconi intercepted a Whitman pass and ran up to goal to try and tie the game, but ultimately didn’t have enough time before the clock stopped.

“I think we played well but just didn’t get the result we were hoping for, but that pushes us to work harder,” Hymes said.

The Cats next play the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons at home on April 8 at 7 p.m.