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Summit girls lacrosse falls 16-2 in snowy season opener

Tigers next host Eagle Valley Tuesday, May 11

Summit High School senior goalie Sydney Mullins looks for an outlet pass against Battle Mountain during the Tigers girls varsity lacrosse team's season opener vs. Battle Mountain on May 8 at Tiger Stadium in Breckenridge.
Photo by Ashley Low / Ashley Low Photography

The Summit High School varsity girls lacrosse team lost its season opener 16-2 Saturday, May 8, versus Battle Mountain.

The visiting Huskies rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to score 16 unanswered goals in a dominating performance on a windy day complete with rain, snow and graupel at Tiger Stadium.

Summit raced out to the early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from freshman Ella Rader and sophomore Lily Wiethake. Rader was one of the Tigers’ most successful players Saturday as she started for the Tigers at the faceoff and had several strong attacks down the sideline.



“Ella is clearly a very experienced player,” Tigers assistant coach Kendall King said. “She’s very strong both on offense and on defense. She’s motivated, hardworking and as a freshman has a lot of potential to go very far in the game of lacrosse. Today she played all positions — attack, midfield and defense. She did a little bit of everything and did well with all that.”

King said the Tigers offense caught the Huskies defense off guard early with direct attacks to the opposing net. After the opening minutes of the game, Battle Mountain buckled down and prevented Summit’s runs at the net, forcing the Tigers to pass more — an element of the game the team struggled with Saturday.



King said when Summit returns to the Tiger Stadium turf at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 15, versus Eagle Valley, the team will need to pass better and also talk and communicate more effectively. She said though the Tigers didn’t do a good job running set plays Saturday, she thought the showing was a positive one for the team considering only six girls had played a competitive lacrosse game before.

On top of that, the Tigers program only had 16 players between varsity and junior varsity Saturday, meaning all players had to pace themselves for both the varsity and junior varsity games.

Watch: Summit vs. Battle Mountain girls lacrosse


The Summit High School girls varsity lacrosse team defends in the season opener vs. Battle Mountain on May 8 in Breckenridge. | Photo by Ashley Low / Ashley Low Photography

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“I think slowing it down, pushing it back and passing it around would have given us more opportunities to get more goals,” King said. “All of our plays just involve more cutting and moving around rather than the ball getting cramped in the middle in front of the net. It was something that we just kind of started working on in practice but the players felt like they were put under pressure and they were just trying to go rather than calling a play and slowing down.”

King also stressed the Tigers program thinks defense can lead to victories down the line. As the anchor of the defense Saturday, Sydney Mullins — the lone Tiger senior on the pitch with fellow captains Kalee Padilla and Angel LeBaron absent — saved 20 shots. Though she relented 16 goals, King felt Mullins played a great game.

“And she’s been helping coach some of the JV new goalies as well, so she’s been a really big part of the season,” King said. “Sydney was a great leader. She did awesome in goal and had great clears.”


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