Newton North’s girls’ lacrosse team, despite a slow start to the season, has gone 4-1 in their last 5 games.
According to senior Carter Reynolds, a captain, the team worked through a rocky start of 2-10 by changing their mentality.
“We’ve had a couple talks,” she said. “We say, is this really how we want to come off the field every game? And then I think we came together and decided we don’t want to feel like this every game, and we don’t want to stoop down to other teams’ levels.”
They began winning more games after changing their mentality on and off the field.
According to Reynolds, the worked on increasing “The want to get the ball, fighting for it and putting in 110% every time and just not dipping”
Another struggle they faced early on in the season was getting used to a new coach and learning to play together.
“Fitting in with the coach and each other becoming more of a team was really hard at the start,” said junior Beckett Houston. “After practices and games she was a little more strict than we were used to. But it ended up working really well and we all mended together really well. ”
The team had a big victory Tuesday, May 14 when Houston scored her hundredth career goal for the team.
“I was looking forward to it so much,” she said. “That was my one goal for the season. I was like, I want to get to 100 goals as a junior. And it was just really fun. The team made me a poster, which is so nice.”
Houston will be attending Rochester Polytechnic Institute when she graduates, the same college the new coach Elizabeth Brady attended. Brady has worked to bring new energy to the program, which has struggled the last few years.
“I think she makes us focus on getting better at lacrosse and doing things to work towards goals that we have for ourselves,” said senior Danielle Morrill. “I think she builds that competitiveness with each other that goes towards games and she’ll talk with us and ask us how our day is and is really involved and like not just like our sports lives, but also like our academics and like home lives.”
The captains, seniors Caileigh Calabro, Julianna Capello, and Reynolds, also work to maintain a hardworking, goal-oriented mentality, as well as a positive team environment. According to Reynolds, they have taken inspiration from previous captains in order to provide the best possible leadership and avoid social issues on the team, such as cliques or divides between members of different grades.
The Tiger’s game against Needham, Tuesday, May 2, exemplified their mentality change and was a hard fought game, despite the loss.
“Everyone was running their hardest, everyone was putting in all their effort. We were down 2-7 at half and then we just flipped a switch and we really came back from being down by five goals and we almost had them. But I think the effort was there,” said Reynolds. “I think that’s a big difference when everyone wants to be there and wants to put in all their effort, then it changes the scoreboard.”
Newton South Scores
Baseball
Framingham: 3 (8-8), Tigers: 2 (6-9)
Tigers: 4, Lexington: 0 (12-5)
Wellesley: 9 (10-5), Tigers: 6
Tigers: 6, Natick: 5 (3-13)
Lacrosse, Boys
Tigers: 8 (6-10), Framingham: 6
Wellesley: 6, Tigers: 5
Natick: 11, Tigers: 7
Lacrosse, Girls
Tigers: 16 (5-11), Framingham: 5 (0-13)
Wellesley: 13 (12-4), Tigers: 4
Softball
Tigers: 6 (9-5), Wellesley: 1 (9-6)
Tigers: 15, Natick: 5 (7-9)
Tennis, Boys
Tigers: 5 (11-1), Framingham: 0 (5-6)
Tigers: 5, Cohasset: 0 (10-4)
Tigers: 4, Wellesley: 1 (10-6)
Tennis, Girls
Tigers: 5 (8-4), Framingham: 0 (1-8)
Wellesley: 5 (13-1), Tigers: 0
Tigers: 3, Brookline: 2 (8-6)
Track and Field, Boys
Champions, Bay State Conference
Track and Field, Girls
Champions, Bay State Conference
Ultimate Frisbee, Boys
Tigers: 15 (3-3), St. John’s Prep: 9 (1-4)
Ultimate Frisbee, Girls
Tigers: 13 (8-0), Arlington: 4 (0-4)
Volleyball, Boys
Tigers: 3 (13-2), Framingham: 0 (4-11)
Tigers: 3, Westfield: 0 (17-1)
Tigers: 3, Weymouth: 0 (9-8)
Tigers: 3, Needham: 1 (15-2)