Piedmont High School’s girls lacrosse team is facing a new season after losing many seniors, but the new players aren’t struggling to fill in the missing gaps. Coach Carlton Chan said that the dynamic has shifted with the loss of players from last season.
“We lost a ton of seniors, and we lost one senior [Friedje Schickedanz] who played four years, started as a freshman on varsity, so that leadership, especially the way we run our offense, we would always run it from behind. And she was that floor leader, like our point guard,” Chan said. “That’s probably the biggest change, is losing our point guard, and trying to figure out who’s gonna be that girl who is going to take that lead.”
Chan said the team’s captains are excellent leaders, and are working their best to fill those big shoes.
“We have some tremendous captains, we have Peyton Watson, Naftahlia Segal, Jameson Sanford, three really solid girls,” Chan said. “They’re trying to find their voice, and they’re finding it. We (also) have Hallie (Burden) and Dahlia (Osman), two tremendous seniors, really great players.”
Watson is the team’s leading scorer and strongest offensive player.
“Last year, (Watson) scored over 100 goals, and she was easily top 10 in North Coast on scores,” Chan said.
Chan said the team’s biggest strength is their optimism. “They’re really, really happy,” Chan said. “They’re a really fun group. If we can maintain having fun whether we win or lose, they’re learning. I think their biggest strength is they support each other.”
Chan said that the goal for the season is to develop some of the younger players.
“Goals for the season is just build up this group of sophomores and juniors, use the seniors as much as we can to get these girls to be good,” Chan said. “And they’re gonna be good.”
Chan said he sees huge potential in the underclassmen.
“Sydney (Latvala) is a freshman, and she plays with such joy,” Chan said. “And then the juniors too, like Bailey (Gentemann) and Elliot (Hondorp) — boy, their growth was huge.”
Chan said that he feels tremendous about his defenders.
“(Segal) is really anchoring it, and (Osman) too,” Chan said. “Finley (Veltri), brand new, she played JV and she’s on varsity now, really really good, and (Gentemann). Our four low defenders, we feel really good about.”
The schedule will be tough, with a match against Miramonte looming large. “We’re gonna run into a really tough one against Miramonte,” Chan said. “A lot of those girls are going to play in college, none of our girls are gonna play in college. That’s going to be next week.”
The team has a very shallow bench, with only four subs.
“We have a very thin group. We don’t have very many subs. Almost all the girls on JV now have one year of experience, so we’re gonna build that up,” Chan said. “The girls who are playing, they’re playing four quarters. We’re doing our best to manage that, but the girls sitting on the bench, they’re working us during practice. They’ll get there.”
During the offseason, the team attempted to do a lot of conditioning to prepare for the season.
“We tried to get as many days on the field as possible,” Chan said. “We got like two days a week in the fall, and so we utilized every one of those two days. We would just condition. The plays are almost there — some of the girls know it, some of them don’t.”
The Highlanders lost 15-8 against Foothill on February 24 and 10-7 to Campolindo on Feb. 26. Watson scored four goals in the loss to Foothill and Burden had three. Latvala had the other. Hondorp had an assist.
The Falcons were led by Amelia Fowler’s six goals. Gabriella Shin had three while Hailey and Molly White each scored two.
Piedmont’s next matchup is against Las Lomas on March 3.