RC Lax Girls Win Three

Mulitalo Notches 100th Career Point

The Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team faced little adversity in winning all three of its games last week, cruising to road wins over Salem and Charlottesville and a home victory over Blacksburg. With the wins, the Wildcats improved to 5-1.

At Salem (2-0), the Wildcats won 21-5 on Monday of last week. “The team played great on both the offensive end and our transitions,” said RC head coach Susan Nye.

Anna Nye led RC with five goals, while Lola Mulitalo added four goals, and Nala Shearer paced the Wildcats with three assists. Nye and Maddie Dahl each won seven draw controls.

The RC defense caused 12 turnovers and collected 13 ground balls. Nye led RC with four caused turnovers, while Libba Erksine paced the Wildcats with four ground balls.

RC goalie Emily Humphreys made seven saves.

RC 20, Blacksburg 5

Breaking away from a game that was close for most of the first half, the Wildcats earned a 20-5 home win over Blacksburg (3-2) last Wednesday in Lexington.

The game was tied 3-3 about two minutes into the second quarter, but the Wildcats outscored Blacksburg 5-1 for the remainder of the half to take an 8-4 lead into intermission. RC erupted for six goals in the third quarter and added six more in the fourth while holding the Bruins to just one goal in the second half. The improvement by Blacksburg was notable, as the Bruins had lost 21-1 in their meeting with the Wildcats last year.

Commenting on the Bruins’ improvement, Coach Nye said, “They’re a lot more physical, their stick stills. Honestly, they played with a level of intensity that was really good.”

The RC coach added that the Wildcats got into the rhythm once they relaxed and enjoyed themselves. “I think once we remembered to have fun, that we play this game because it’s fun, once we realized that, our passes changed,” she said.

“The team started slow with several turnovers, but as they moved into the second half, transitions and the offense started to click,” added Coach Nye.

It was a special night for RC sophomore attacker Lola Mulitalo, who notched her 100th career point. Mulitalo scored five goals and dished out seven assists. Halina Homiak also scored five goals for the Wildcats while dishing out one assist, and Nala Shearer contributed two goals and three assists.

Dahl added two goals and two assists for RC, while Ruby Goodhart and Josie Caldwell each had two goals. Anna Nye chipped in one goal and two assists while leading the defense with eight caused turnovers. Also stepping up defensively for RC was Erskine with three caused turnovers. Dahl led the Wildcats with nine draw controls, Nye had six draw controls, and Tadara Cooper paced RC with four ground balls. Twelve different Wildcats collected at least one ground ball.

“The defense was stellar again,” said Coach Nye.

In goal, Humphreys made five saves for the Wildcats.

Emmie Swift and Charis Krouscas led Blacksburg with two goals each, while Danika Henry scored once. Krouscas paced the Bruins with six draw controls, while Swift and Maria Addikis each had three ground balls.

In goal for Blacksburg, Annabella McCoy had a strong effort, making seven saves.

RC 22, CHS 2

The Wildcats ended the week with a 22-2 road win over Charlottesville (1-3).

Sixteen different Wildcats scored at least one goal, with several players notching at least two goals.

Homiak and Anna Nye led RC with four assists each.

Defensively, 12 different Wildcats collected at least one ground ball, led by Homiak and Goodhart with four ground balls each and Caitie Carrington with three. Erskine led RC with three caused turnovers.

Anna Nye paced the Wildcats with eight draw controls, Dahl won six draw controls and Homiak won four.

Today, Wednesday, the Wildcats will play host to Jefferson Forest, with the varsity game only, at 6:30 p.m.