Women’s lacrosse can’t bear Grizzly onslaught

By Owen Yancher,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The Davis High women’s lacrosse team’s (11-7 overall, 3-2 in league) was overwhelmed by Granite Bay (15-5 overall, 4-1) Tuesday night, only mustering six scores en route to a 20-6 loss that ended their Sacramento Valley League playoff run before it had begun.

Sophomore Ellie Baker, who led the Devils with two goals, gave DHS a 1-0 lead minutes into the away game. But lapses in the Devil defense allowed the Grizzlies to rack up the score early. By intermission, Davis was down 12-3.

“Our biggest problem was our lack of communication,” head coach Jenn Morris said. “We had wide open scores against us because girls weren’t shifting into the right positions, and they had no idea they needed to be there since no one was talking.”

The 14-point loss eliminates Davis from contention for the league title, but the Blue Devils’ season is yet to end. Davis will be seeded for next week’s North Coast section playoffs on Saturday and will likely play again the following Wednesday.

“We have a week to prepare,” Morris added. “That’ll give us time to correct some mistakes and avoid what happened here tonight.”

Tuesday’s loss wasn’t all bad: junior Nicole Pugh showcased sparks of brilliance, at one point juking out two Grizzly defenders who ended up crashing into each other and lying on the ground, dazed and confused, as Pugh continued to charge down the turf.

Junior goalkeepers Maggie Whittemore and Sophia Hahn also had multiple highlight stops. Each junior had four saves, but were aided significantly by the crossbar, which had even more saves of its own.

Defensively, senior captains Sarah Sherwin and Anna Belenis each controlled four ground balls and had a takeaway.