Girls lax reloading with younger talent

 

(Seventh in a series of previews for 2020.)


Ouch! Beginning a season with key players possibly sidelined for the season hurts.

Mullen girls lacrosse knows all about it, too. Recently, talented junior Elise Bialecki suffered a knee injury that head coach Melynda Brown said “possibly” could sideline her for the season. Plus, two-year starter Genessa Ziegler may miss her junior season with injury.

Forgive Brown if she bites a lip until it bleeds.

“We have to have a next-man-up-kind of mentality, do what we can and we’re just trying not to focus on it,” she said.

In her third season in command, her Mustangs will include junior attack Molly Gilbert, sophomore attack-midfielder Haley Vanek, sophomore midfielder Charlie Beck, senior defender Sydney Bullen and senior goalie Cierra Jeffries.

The Mustangs were 11-6 a year ago, a playoff team, and it won’t get any easier – they have Centennial League foes, of course, who regularly win or challenge for the championship. But add the nonleague opposition the likes of defending Colorado champion Colorado Academy, Fairview, Palmer Ridge, Denver East …

“Basically,” Brown said, “we’re playing all top-25 teams outside of our league.”

Realistically, Brown said, “we have to change our attacking strategy. We’re brainstorming to see what we have. Truthfully, the heart is there, but we have to replace some talent, so have to be very strategic with a game plan for each game.

“We have a lot of talented sophomores. We need to build some confidence, need that diversity, need that fight … we have 45 girls in the program, so we have the roster size. We just need to build the skills.”

With the school closing a few days early before next week’s spring break and the campus shut down to be cleaned and prepped to fight the ever-growing COVID-19, Mustangs spring sports have been forced to be played at away sites until at lest near the end of the month. Girls lacrosse will have one of the first changes, a match on Friday at CA, 12:30 p.m.

Mullen’s first league game will be April 6, home against Eaglecrest. The regular season will run through May 9. Playoffs will open May 13 with the championship set for May 27 at the University of Denver.