Girls’ lacrosse is a wildly popular sport to play at Tualatin High School (TuHS), but it isn’t nearly as recognized as other spring activities. For the 2023 girls’ lacrosse team, this year has held many promising opportunities for new and long-time players alike. 

Overcoming the challenge of losing many seniors last year, lacrosse coach Lois Ray shared, “It’s been awesome to see new faces grow and step into the role they didn’t get to fill last year. Even though it’s been tough losing eight seniors, It’s great keeping the team dynamic on and off the field and setting each other up for success.” 

With many new faces on the varsity team, it has a very promising outlook. One of the big leading forces on the offensive end has been Senior Molly Maclean, whether it’s driving for a hard shot or looking to set her teammates up for success. Defensively, Senior Hannah Labhart has been leading amazingly by helping with crashes and overall communication. Against Mountainside, she made a great effort to stop a player and held the leading score throughout the game. Seniors Eva Frezza and Mia Salamana-Cox have been splitting halves as goalkeeper. When it comes to the midfielders, Junior Jill “Freight Train” Magnum has been drawing the ball and getting through those in her path. All these players and more have held the team up throughout the beginning of the season.

Of all the games so far, “one of the toughest games played this year was against Lakeridge,” Ray said. “They were able to move the ball incredibly well. Seven players that had never played a varsity game started so it was a tough start, to say the least.” Although Lakeridge played hard, Tualatin improved on defense with each rep they played, and by the second half, they were able to stay on Lakeridge’s girls and not make the same mistakes twice. 

At the Westview game, they were down two at halftime. At halftime in lacrosse, anything can happen. The girls came back and scored three goals in under two minutes.

”It was one of the proudest moments because the girls came together to focus on basic skills and the seconds, not just the whole game,” Ray said. 

With this improvement, Ray believes they will have a chance to make it to the playoffs. 

“I’m not sure if it’s in a silver bracket,” she said. “It’s hard to tell because we haven’t played many people on our level. This group definitely gets their focus up and comes together, plays as a unit on defense and plays all the way to the attacking side. The gold bracket is really tough, but I think we can have a competitive first couple rounds.”

    Players can get what they want out of lacrosse based on the work they put in. There are opportunities to be with friends, get in shape or get better at what they are passionate about. There is a spot for everyone and many chances to learn and have fun.