With the spring season approaching, the girls lacrosse team is working towards one of its most highly-anticipated seasons yet. With senior captains Grace McGinty and Katie Beyer leading the team, the girls are looking to make it to the top of the San Diego Section this upcoming season. The girls are looking to beat their record last season, 14-7, and to push the team further than CIF semifinals.

“We are looking forward to some new players coming in and learning the game alongside some of our more experienced and seasoned players,” senior Katie Beyer said. “We really want to make it a winning season and keep the spirits high and momentum going throughout the spring.”

Like all sports team, the CHS lacrosse team has talented players that come and go each year. With only one starting defender returning this season, the team is looking to work together to get its fresh defense as strong as possible.

“We are feeling anxious about getting back on the field,” sophomore Jillian Della Penna said. “We lost a lot of great seniors last year, so there are big spots to be filled this upcoming season. Last year, I played attack, but this season I am working hard to get a defensive position.”

With the new season also comes a new head coach, Jana Bradley (last year’s assistant coach), and a new assistant coach, Spencer Harden. Coach Bradley has experience playing division one lacrosse at the University of Oregon, and also coached at Marist University, a division one school in the east. Coach Harden, a Carlsbad lacrosse alum, is fresh out of playing division one at San Diego State University. Together, this duo plans on taking the program to the next level.

The players attend clinics every Tuesday and Thursday to work with the new coaches, fine tune their fitness and acquire different skills.

“This year, we are also getting a new assistant coach, and our old assistant coach is moving to head coach,” Beyer said. “Our head coach has an absolutely amazing background. She played and coached at Oregon and also coached at Marist which are both amazing lacrosse schools.  She has a really good attitude and positive mentality that I think she can bring to the team.”

After bringing their 3-16 record in the 2013 season to 14-7 in 2014, the team captains plan on coming back this season even stronger and want to take Carlsbad all the way to the final. McGinty and Beyer strive to make their fourth and final year of Carlsbad varsity lacrosse the best one yet alongside this tight-knit team.

“To make it to the finals, our team needs to cooperate and just keep pushing each other,” Della Penna said. “We are a really close team, so it will not be hard for us to achieve our goal if we work hard.”