Girls lacrosse began three years ago. They started in 9th place, then rose to 7th, and now are 3rd in the league with a record of 6-3. In the past, they struggled to get on the leaderboard, but now they are on the way to play in their first ever playoff game, creating history for girls’ lacrosse.
The lacrosse team has a strong amount of talent like Tiana Harris, senior, who got into the 1st team for VVAL and ranked #1 in the CIF North Coast Section. Tiana’s save percentage stats are 0.669. Alice Turner, sophomore, ranked #2 in the CIF North Coast Section, putting 55 goals in net; Briana Jurasek, sophomore, ranked #14 in the CIF North Coast Section for most dug-up ground balls, having a staggering 29 ground balls and an absolute wall on defense; and Sarah Juhasz, junior, ranked #10 in the CIF North Coast Section for having 23 dug-up ground balls.
The girls’ lacrosse team looks to aim for greatness this season with a loaded roster and team excitement. As Sarah Juhasz stated, “What obviously surprised me is that we actually won our game because last year we had a majority of losses and now we are like second in the league.”
On top of that, one of the captains of the team, Solana Staes, senior, stated, “Something that surprised me was the amount of dedication and just hard work the team put in this year. Last year we worked hard as well, but this year I can see it in our results. It’s not often that a team goes from being new for the third year and then all of a sudden going to the playoffs.”
The girls have flipped the script in the past couple months as they defeated great odds, like Rancho Cotati, Justin Sienna, and Casa Grande, all with the help of the two captains, Arias and States, being major help for the girls. Solana said, “I really loved Tiana’s consistent dedication and energy on the team, and I think that’s what kept our team on our feet, and this is why we’re in the playoffs; it’s mostly Tiana. She’s the best co-captain.”
Tiana was major asset as a player and captain. She said, “You can’t really rely on me that much because I’m not the one scoring the goals out there. I would like to thank Alice because we rode the A-train down to the playoffs, but also a lot of people who didn’t play the sport, like Briana Jurasek, that’s a big mention; she did not know how to play, and now she’s like up there up in Max-preps leaderboards, and that’s crazy.”
The captains were honored among their fellow graduates in their senior night walkout on April 15, prior to their game against Rancho Cotati. First walking out was #3 Tiana Harris with her whole family, followed by #7 Solana Staes being accompanied by her two best friends. Then #18 Emma Griffiths walked with her parents and brother with #24 Destiny Tapia accompanied by her mom and younger brother, after her #8 Isabella Silvi accompanied by her parents and younger sister and last but not least, #5 Lia Jerry accompanied her parents and older sister, completing the girls graduating from the 2024 lacrosse team.
With Rancho Cotati being a fierce team to play against, the girls kept their game on point, being neck and neck the whole game, but the Dragons finished strong, shutting out the game 15-14 for their last ever home game of their 2023-2024 season and ending the game on a win with their heads held high.
