Girls Lacrosse: Mission Viejo Wins 12-9 Against Dana Hills

The Dana Hills Girls Lacrosse team is still a very young team, composed mostly of sophomores. Despite being less experienced they showed a lot of promise during this game against Aliso, a more experienced team. Dana’s Hills Girls Lacrosse team is led by Coach Breck and Assistant Coach Cardenas. During most of the game the underdog Dolphins kept the game within one score and at one point Dana led 9-6. Coach Breck was very impressed with his team’s efforts against Mission Viejo, stating, “I’m impressed with them overcoming given the fact this team was better, more experienced.”

The Dolphins, very early in the game, had a huge block by Goalie 19: Oliva Cook at 21:55 in the first half and Dana´s #8 Izzy Haigg scored on the fast-break tying the game 1-1. For the rest of the half Mission Viejo dominated defensively and had offensive control until about the 4:00 left in the first half. Dana was able to tie the game at 5-5 on three straight goals two by #32 Erica Smith and one by #43 Cassidy Strauss.

At the beginning of the second half, at 23:30, #43 Strauss scores to give the Dolphins their first lead of the game. After a penalty shot goal by Mission Viejo at 22:26 tying the game, Dana´s #32 Smith scored 3 consecutive goals. Making the game 9-6. At this point Mission Viejo played extremely well for the rest of the game resulting in a 6-0 Mission Viejo run in the final 14 minutes of the game.

Dana´s #32 Erica Smith played extremely well during the game scoring 5 goals. She gave major credit to her teammates’ performance: “you have to do everything as a team, you can’t do anything by yourself or you’re not going to get anywhere in life.” During the course of the game the players kept cheering each other on and believing in themselves which speaks volumes about their character and the culture that is being promoted.

Reflecting after the game, Coach Breck said, “Offensively we have the confidence now, it’s now about running our structures … The defense really stepped up, defensively I have no complaints.” Due to this team being so young and their positive attitude, they will definitely continue to grow as individuals and as players.