Sailors girls lacrosse honors seniors, fall to Eagle Valley
The good thing about the Steamboat Springs High School girls lacrosse team is when they have the ball in the offensive end, they do well. They create chances and often score.
The bad thing is they don’t have the ball in the offensive end very often. Steamboat doesn’t win face-offs regularly, so they have to fight to get the ball back, relying on fouls or turnovers to get possession.
When they do get possessions, sometimes a pass is picked up by the opponent, but most of the time, the Sailors put a shot on net.
Eagle Valley had more time with the ball than the Sailors on Thursday, resulting in a 15-4 win.
“We need to work on our draws and getting possession off the draw,” head coach Amy Norris said. “We have been working on it; it’s just something we have to continue to work on, and we’ll get there. It just takes some time.”
The announcer at Gardner Field repeated one phrase of advice all night long: “Ground balls, ladies, ground balls!”
If the Sailors had won even half the ground balls, they would have had possession far more often and, perhaps, made the game a little closer.
Steamboat’s Tinsley Moore scored the first goal of the game. After four Devils goals, Megan Maitre added one to keep the game close at 4-2. Bella Brinkman earned a goal as well, putting the score at 9-3 at the half. The Devils blew the advantage open after the break, and Greta Schmitz was the only second-half scorer for the Sailors.
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Steamboat Springs senior Margot Schmitz was honored for senior night during halftime of a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs senior Erica Simmons was honored for senior night during halftime of a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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An Eagle Valley player passes the ball to a teammate during a game against Steamboat Springs at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs girls lacrosse player Bella Brinkman scores during a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs girls lacrosse player Grace O. keeps herself between the goal and an opponent during a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs girls lacrosse senior Erica Simmons picks up a loose ball during a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs girls lacrosse player Grace O. defends a charging Devils player during a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
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Steamboat Springs girls alcrosse player Maddy Moss moves towards the goal during a game against Eagle Valley at Gardner Field on Thursday night. (Shelby Reardon)
At halftime, the team brought attention to seniors Margot Schmitz, Erica Simmons and Audrey Sumner, even though she was absent.
“I am going to miss them next year,” Norris said. They are great leaders. I lean on them for a lot of stuff: warming up the team when I’m not here, leading the team, being positive influences for everyone, mentoring the younger kids on the team. They’re awesome. They have great attitudes; they’re great players and great people.”
Freshman defender Anna Rushton admitted she was “terrified” of the trio of seniors, but, over the past month or so, has grown less intimidated and learned to appreciate their wisdom.
“They’re all really good leaders,” Rushton said. “And really good at communicating and talking about what we need to do on the field, and they’re not afraid to tell you what you’re doing wrong.”
The team has three more games on the schedule, but Thursday was Schmitz’s last game, so she was a little emotional at times.
“It was great. I was emotional. It was definitely hard,” she said. “It was great. It was a good way to end it.”
The best part about the Sailors girls lacrosse team is it’s young. Aside from the three seniors, the rest of the team will return next year. With no season last year, the freshmen and sophomores are essentially rookies. They played a lot of lacrosse in a short time, and learned and grew close. Over the next year or two, there’s no saying what they’ll be capable of.
“This year, all the seasons got shortened to a month, and we didn’t have that much playing time,” Schmitz said. “We got super close. That was something that stood out to me.”
Eagle Valley 15, Steamboat Springs 4
EV 9 6 – 15
SS 3 1 – 4
First half
SS – Tinsley Moore, 19:18
EV – 16:31
EV – 16:29
EV – 13:42
EV – 13:15
SS – Megan Maitre, 9:39
EV – 7:53
SS – Bella Brinkman, 7:23
EV – 4:32
EV – 2:39
EV – 0:38
EV – 0:05
Second half
EV – 19:28
SS – Greta Schmitz, 13:58
EV – 10:37
EV – 8:16
EV – 6:40
EV – 4:00
EV – 2:39
Shelby Reardon is the assistant editor at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach her, call 970-871-4253, email sreardon@SteamboatPilot.com or follow her on Twitter @ByShelbyReardon.
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