WATSONVILLE—Monte Vista Christian girls’ lacrosse team was off to its best start in the program’s short history by winning seven straight games to start the season.
But the Mustangs hit a minor bump on the road following a 17-8 loss to Scotts Valley High in non-league action on a wet Wednesday night.
Despite the loss, senior Courtney Miller wasn’t entirely upset in the way they performed against one of the best teams in the Central Coast Section and Northern California.
“Overall, I think we exceeded our expectations,” Miller said.
Miller admitted they were nervous going into the game after they had just watched film on the Falcons playing against Mitty and Los Gatos high schools, two of the best teams in the section.
“Seeing just how quickly they move the ball and those shots they can take from anywhere,” Miller said. “I know there were a lot of girls that were nervous but we just told them to keep their heads up and the first half they did, they played amazing.”
Then the second half took place where the Mustangs were outscored 10-3. Miller was held to just three goals on Wednesday.
“The rain and everyone’s cold, our defense and our middles kind of lost it, me as well,” she said. “We just lost the draw and we kept losing the draw over and over again.”
Miller mentioned they tried some new plays on offense but they weren’t able to execute them and so they resorted back to the same offensive approach that’s been working for them this season.
MVC coach Matt Coleman said they managed to hang in but Scotts Valley’s midfield was a tad bit stronger than the Mustangs’ unit, which he knew going into the match.
“We just tried to control the midfield as much as possible,” he said.
The Falcons had their main four players in Ellie Raffo, Siena Wong, Taylor Santos and Sofia Niklaus, which did a great job of slipping past the Mustangs’ defense.
Raffo had six goals, Niklaus added four and Santos had a game-high seven goals for the Falcons.
“They are a force to be reckoned with,” Miller said. “They’ve all been playing with each other for so long and it’s just the way that they can move the ball around.”
Miller believes it was definitely a learning experience for the defense, especially in the pick and roll situations that Scotts Valley has perfected. She said they’ll need to step it up if they want to keep up with some of the stronger teams in the Central Coast Section.
Coleman believes they came out a bit timid and didn’t play the style of offense the Mustangs are accustomed to playing, which is aggressive and attack. As the game progressed, the players started to gain more confidence and he’s looking forward to the next chance to play in April.
Coleman said the Falcons did a great job of covering the middle of the field and controlled the draws, especially in the second half where they began to pull away from MVC.
“You can’t give that to a team like Scotts Valley because they’re going to put it in the back of the net,” he said.
MVC kept it tight in the first half and with that they gained some confidence, but Coleman said they were also exposed to a couple of things to work on.
“Over that period they just took it from us and the better team won tonight,” he said.
Coleman said they’ll take the loss in the statistics column but the Mustangs still won in terms of morale and they’ll head back to the drawing board to figure out what they could do better for next time.
MVC will have a chance at a rematch against Scotts Valley on April 28 at 7:30pm.
“We played a top team, one of the top teams in all of CCS and maybe even more than that,” he said. “I think our girls gained the confidence of, ‘Hey, we do belong on this field with this team.’”
The Mustangs will host Notre Dame-Salinas on Wednesday at 5pm.
