Freshmen Erin Cima quickly made history in her first game as a high school varsity athlete when she scored the first goal in the girls’ lacrosse team’s history.

“It’s exciting to think that I made school history by just making a goal,” Cima said.

Cima has played seven years for club teams prior to playing for the school. She pushes herself on and off of the field in order to “make her family proud.”

“They have always showed me right from wrong. My family is my life, and my goal is to live up to them,” Cima said.

Cima likes to help the rest of the team learn all about the sport and watch the team transform into better lacrosse
players.

“Having never played before, it is really helpful to have an experienced player on the team who teaches us everything we need to know, and also being able to ask her questions about the sport,” junior Trista Thomas said.

Other girls who have scored this season include senior Danielle Thomas, junior Mary-Kate Connelly, sophomores Allison Fellenstein and Jezika Gunter.

“When you score you feel rewarded. You feel like all of your hard work has led to an accomplishment that made not only yourself proud but your team proud,” Gunter said.

Scoring goals is not the only important part of the game. A big part goes to the goalie who has to stop the other team from scoring.

“I focus on getting the ball. After I clear it to the midfielder, I feel confident and ready for them to shoot again. When I have a good save count, and it is as high as I wanted it to be for the game, I feel really good about the progress that I have made since the begging of the season,” senior Kristina Sammartino said.

For Fellenstein the most important thing is becoming a team.

“Win or lose we bond as a team both on and off the field helping each other grow as strong team players,” Fellenstein said.

Although the team has not won any games so far, the girls did not let that discourage them. Rather than looking at the score board, the girls focus on improving their technique.

“We don’t judge the game on if we win or lose. We judge on how well we played as a team and improve on stick skills” freshman Veronica Collner said.

This historic season has been a memorable season for many of the girls on the team.

“My favorite memory is just the season in general. I loved seeing the team grow together and become bigger and stronger. Sometimes we had our rough patches ,but we pushed through and succeeded as a team,” Danielle Thomas said. “One the proudest moments of the season was scoring my first goal and getting my first assist.”

Cima is “excited” and “hopeful” for what the future holds and hopes that “the girls will keep up with the sport.”

“We have grown so much since the beginning of the season, and I believe that if we all keep working at this, we will be able to achieve greater things in the upcoming years,” Connelly said.

Considering this is the first year for the team, Cima believes that the team is off to a promising start.
Cima said, “I’m proud of how the season is going so far and how we have improved from the beginning of the season and I love my team.”