The LHS girls varsity lacrosse team lost 8-3 at home against Conant on Saturday, April 7.

To start the game, Conant scored two goals within the first six minutes. The Cougars pushed their offense upfield, earning an offsides call about five minutes in and keeping the Libertyville defense under constant pressure nearly the whole half, with many of Conant’s goals off breakaways. With two minutes until halftime, LHS’ sophomore captain Emma Burns scored by sprinting through the Conant defense to get a shot, making the score 7-1 Conant.

After halftime, Libertyville had noticeably greater possession and more time spent in Conant’s defensive end. Burns scored her second goal of the game about eight minutes into the half, which was followed by a goal from junior Maggie Burnetti, co-sports editor on Drops of Ink, who took advantage of the Conant goalie being out of the crease by scoring from afar into a low corner of the net.

The Wildcats transitioned after halftime to an offensive mindset and scored more, but those efforts weren’t enough.

“We switched gears a little bit: [in the first half,] when we had the ball, the person was pressuring them, and then the next two adjacent passes, the person was also pressuring them,” said Head Coach Andra Dalton.

Her goal was to force more turnovers and make the team focus on possession, a team goal of theirs. She said that from this game forward, “We’re going to continue to work on getting possession when it’s a 50-50 ball.”

Senior captain Natalie Seitz, who plays goalie, said at halftime the team realized  “what was happening and that we needed to step it up from [first half].”

Seitz explained the cancellation of many games since Spring Break and a lack of outdoor practice on the turf contributed to their lack of possession in the first half, and they managed to step it up in the second by playing more aggressively.

“First half, it was more of us just kind of getting back into things and then second half, it was a higher mentality,” Seitz stated.

The team’s next game will be home against Warren Township High School on Wednesday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m.