By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
On a cold and rainy Saturday morning, March 23, the Westwood Flahive and multi-purpose fields buzzed with activity as the Westwood girls' lacrosse play day commenced. Despite the rain, the event saw enthusiastic participation from multiple high school teams, including Dover-Sherborn, Medfield, Needham, Wellesley, Notre Dame, Hingham, Natick, Norwell, and Franklin.
From 8 AM to 12 PM, the ten teams engaged in a series of scrimmages, providing an opportunity to shake off the rust and build momentum ahead of the regular season. Coaches utilized the event to assess player performance, rotating athletes through different positions such as attack, midfield, and defense.
The Needham girls battled against Notre Dame Academy, Natick High, and the Hingham Harbormen, working on fine-tuning their offensive attack and their defensive plays to block away the scoring chances from their opposing teams.
Head coach Anne Quigley shared a bit about the Rocket’s time at the Westwood lacrosse play day, and how the week of tryouts has been for the team: “I think this is our second year coming to Westwood, it’s an awesome opportunity at the end of the tryout week to continue to evaluate some of our players and get some kinks out from the offseason,” said Quigley. “(This week) it’s been lots and lots of lacrosse, different situations, lots of different combinations of kids, and welcoming the new faces to the program in a variety of ways. It’s been good, they’ve worked hard all week, which is all I can ask.”
Coach Quigley spoke on her time with the Needham program, and how her seniors are seasoned players, she hopes they will continue to build off the success from the Rockets’ previous two years: “This is my third year at Needham. It’s been good… I feel like every team is different, we’re lucky this year because we have some very seasoned captains, seasoned leadership, and seasoned seniors. I’ve been with the senior class for a significant portion of years, they’re aware of the expectations that I have and the strength of the program from year to year,” stated Quigley.
The team will be working diligently throughout the next week to prepare for their game on April 4, where the Rockets will travel to Milton High for their first league match of the season. Not only is Needham hoping to grow this season and build off of previous years, but the Rockets will also be facing old competitors whom they hope to defeat this time around. Coach Quigley spoke on upcoming games that will be great matches to watch, leaving fans on the edge of their seats: “Our league is very competitive which is great. I would say the last two years the top few teams have been Wellesley, Weymouth, and Walpole. So, any of those games are a huge competition for us. Wellesley is a significant rival for the Rockets and they’re a great competition, we are always going to the game to take on that neighboring town rival,” said Quigley.
To learn more about the Needham girls’ lacrosse schedule, please visit: https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/4603864
