In a sweeping 23–4 victory, the girls’ varsity lacrosse team won the district semifinal over Lake Howell at home on April 15, 7 p.m. In many ways, this game has demonstrated how far the team has come since the beginning of the season.

After the first quarter, the team led Lake Howell 7–4 and scored consistently from there.

“I thought we played pretty good and were more consistent, so that was a positive,” coach Mitch Whittington said.

Since this game was late in the season, Whittington did not need to give his team as many pep talks. But the team still has pre-game circles to boost their morale.

“We have a group circle where we talk about all the positive things that we can do in this game, and how much better we can be than last game,” junior Ana Kavaja said. “We give each other constructive criticism, and I think that that really helps.”

Kavaja plays defense. In the beginning, she had some doubts about how the game would play out.

“We played Lake Howell very early into our season,” Kavaja said. “Since [then], we’ve been having some struggles with perseverance, [so] it was hard to tell what it would turn out like. [But] just seeing how much effort we [had] put in throughout the game, it just shows a lot [about] how we can do anything [if we] put our minds to it.

Regardless, she continued into the game. It was not until she saw the scoreboard that she started to gain hope that her team would win.

Junior Elena Rodgers scored three goals within the first five minutes of the first quarter. Soon after, senior Maddy O’Connor scored three more goals before the quarter ended.

Rodgers scored the most out of the players, with a total of five goals, followed by Junior Emma Hill, who scored four goals, and senior Maddy O’Connor, who scored three goals.

“I think that [the scores] turned out pretty nicely considering that we didn’t know what it was going to look like,” Kavajo said. “Seeing how it turned out was very motivational.”

Kavaja was proud of many of her teammates for how they had played during this game.

Sophomore Allison Bondinell, nicknamed “Big Al” by the team, played defense. She helped score 2 goals throughout the game in the later quarters.

“I would say I was very proud of my teammate, Allie, big Al,” Kavaja said. “We can see when she’s always defending on [the sideline], trying to get the ball out of the hands, she’s running a marathon [in] most games, and it’s just so inspirational.”

Along with Bondinell, sophomore Madden Monroe helped score one goal and pushed the team to advance to the 2A district six final. The final will take place at Hagerty on Thursday at 6 p.m. against Oviedo.

“We had a handful of players [that] played really good,” Whittington said. “I don’t like to single out individuals because it’s a team sport, but there were a lot of people that played really well.”

As the team moves forward, Kavaja has high hopes for her team.

“I hope we beat them, and I hope we play really good,” Kavaja said. “No matter what happens, we [try] our best and that’s all that matters.”