[ot-caption title=”PC Girls Lax faced off against Benjamin on March 8th, 2016. (via Rosie Rothschild, sophomore)”]

Valiant: to show courage or determination. That is the 2016 theme for the PCGLAX program. Every year Coach Eileen Pliske has a motto for the season and gives out awards to players each week with a little token that symbolizes the season’s theme. Past seasons themes included “Still Got It” (2014) and “Impact” (2015). The theme’s purpose symbolizes what’s to come for the upcoming season, and so far, valiant has been a perfect match for the 2016 squad.

This year’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team has been off to a great start. The girls have been working incredibly hard since the pre-season began in the middle of January, and their determination has definitely been showing on the field. Starting with a record of 5-0, the girls swept the competition away in several district games. Starting in the end of February, the team was pressured in nail-biting games against Vero Beach, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Benjamin, and Jensen Beach. Now with a record of 8-3, the players know what technical issues they need to focus on more and what new things should be embedded into the repertuar. Most importantly, the team has learned that whether the scoreboard presents a win or loss at the end of the night, they possess a true power of passion and vigor as a team.

Senior captains Bianca Tedesco, Tori Engler, Izzy Lopez, and Caroline Jordan have led the team as integral parts of the program and now share the wisdom that they have gained from the team when they were underclassmen. A key player since her freshman year, captain Caroline Jordan shares, “The team is super fun and we’re all so close. Coach really pushes us to be our best selves on and off the field and is so supportive of everything we do. It’s really just a great thing to be a part of.”  Like many of the other teams on campus, Girls’ Lacrosse earns its success by playing for each other and leaving everything out on the field. Whether players are inside or outside the lines of the field, every person in the program has a large part in the team’s victories. Junior Dani Swords describes the essence of the team, “The field players get a lot of encouragement from the sideline. We’re putting up a good fight, and I know that our hardwork will take us very far.”

Of course, a large part of putting a winning team together is having the talent to compete, and this team is loaded. A few of the girls on the lacrosse team have already committed to playing Division 1 lacrosse in college. Captains Bianca Tedesco and Izzy Lopez signed to Winthrop University (Tedesco) and American University (Lopez) in the Fall Signing Ceremony. But despite being great players, these seniors have made possibly a bigger impact by being outstanding leaders on and off the field. Eileen Pliske, who has been the head coach of Girls’ Lacrosse for the past 11 years, shares, “Pine Crest Girls’ Lacrosse returned many experienced players this year. The chemistry and leadership on our team has been tremendous.” She has been very proud of the girls so far and cannot wait to see what the rest of the season brings.

The first half of the season has had its tough moments, but playing these other schools who are at such a high level will only benefit the PCGLAX program when preparing for the home stretch. This past Tuesday, the Panthers avenged last year’s loss and defeated the Benjamin School by a final score 24-16. A couple days later the girls travelled to Jensen Beach for an exciting late-night game. Unfortunately, the team did not come home with a ‘dub, however, it was an extremely impressive game for PC and the girls managed to bring the score up really close in the end at 12-15. Games against schools like Benjamin and Jensen Beach are vital to improving as a team and are great games to learn from and improve upon.

With Senior Night right around the corner on March 22nd, the seniors are putting all they have into the program and are confident that the underclassmen will be ready to lead the team in whatever the future brings. For now, there are still many games ahead of the team, so come out and support. The team’s next game is away at Saint Andrews on March 15th, but the next home game is against Lake Highland prep this Friday, March 18th, so mark your calendars!