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June 24th, 2009
June 17th, 2009
San Marin girls lacrosse makes playoffs for first time ever
By Mark Dittmer
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 2:10 PM PDT
The game wasn’t yet over, but it was close enough. With 52 seconds left and with Tam having called a timeout, the giddiness of the San Marin team as it came together had the beginnings of postgame celebration written all over it. Not even head coach Justin Kurland could stand to wait another minute.
“We’re going to the playoffs,” he said, and the members of his team cheered and bounced up and down around him.
After a winless preseason that featured three games, nobody would have guessed that the San Marin girls’ lacrosse team was a playoff team. But that’s exactly what the Mustangs became on Friday, beating Tam 9-4 to take fourth place in the Marin County Athletic League.
Three days later, the Mustangs’ season ended with a lop-sided loss in the playoffs at Redwood. But by then, San Marin had far exceeded expectations. This was the same Mustang team that, a year ago, lost 17-2 to then-fifth-place Novato. Last Wednesday, the Mustangs avenged that loss, beating Novato 11-6.
“Oh my god; this is what I’ve been waiting for all four years (I’ve been here),” said San Marin defender Ali Graw to her teammates. “This is amazing; I love all of you!”
Fellow defender Lindsey Franz tried to put the team’s achievement in perspective.
“We went into this with no expectations,” Franz said. “We just took our momentum from the Novato win and we’re riding it into the playoffs. We love the sport and wanted to take it as far as we can.”
San Marin’s playoff game the following Tuesday was a 23-3 loss to defending MCAL champion Redwood. But on Friday, before all that, the San Marin girls celebrated what they’d accomplished.
“I’m really, really excited,” said Mustang attacker Sarah Greggor, who scored three goals. “We came into this game and we knew we were evenly matched. But against both (Novato and Tam), we’ve been really pumped. Now we’re in the playoffs!”
The Mustangs have come a long way in one year under Kurland. In 2007, San Marin one just one game in the MCAL, and lost to fifth-place Novato 17-2. According to Franz, it was a case of “same players, different chemistry.”
Defender Kristen Swig elaborated:
“People predicted we’d be seventh or eighth (in the league). We had the same seven or eight starters as last year.”
Two of those starters were sisters Meredith and Camille Mixter, part of a contingent of Mustang players who’d been playing tennis together for years at Rolling Hills Tennis Club. Meredith Mixter played lacrosse as a freshman; and got teammate Gina Soares to join when they were sophomores. In 2007, Camille Mixter and Alex Abel came aboard.
“We got along really well as a team,” Meredith Mixter said.
“It’s our team dynamic!” sister Camille interjected.
The Mustangs also got help from blossoming underclassmen. Freshman Kelsey Diedrich started at midfielder and played almost every minute for San Marin.
“It’s nice; I learn from the seniors,” Diederich said. “How to shoot right; how to get position.”
Sophomore Allison Koenig was another underclassmen who made a big contribution. Looking back at the season, Koenig didn’t know if there was one game where the Mustangs really improved.
“It wasn’t a particular game; we just progressed throughout the season,” Koenig said. “Each game, throughout the season, we kept getting better and better.”
On the final game of the season, however, the Mustangs did make one particular improvement. For the first time in the program’s short history, it produced a playoff team.
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