On Saturday March 23, the Stamford High Girls Lacrosse team took a trip to the University of Pennsylvania. The girls met at Stamford High School early that morning to catch a bus for UPenn. When they got there, the team played a scrimmage against an inner city team from Philadelphia.

“The team was made up of girls who had just started picking up lacrosse sticks this season so it was nice being able to come together and turn the scrimmage into a fun learning experience. From the scrimmage we improved our skills, while helping the other team improve as well” junior Sophia Umpierrez said.

Although the game may not have been the most competitive game as the girls were in control the whole time, it really helped Stamford because they were able polish up skills without having to worry about losing.  The exhibition game was also a great opportunity for the team to run plays that they haven’t been able to work on in real games. After their scrimmage the girls had lunch at Abner’s Cheesesteaks… who could go to Philadelphia and not stop for cheesesteaks?

The girls all ate together and bonded before heading back over to UPenn where they watched Penn’s women’s lacrosse team play Cornell. “Going to watch the UPenn vs Cornell women’s game was a great experience for our team, I think it showed the girls how fast paced the game is really played. It taught us to work the ball around and that sometimes rushing to the goal isn’t the best option. Even girls on both of the D1 teams messed up at times but they always kept their head up and rushed to do what they could to get the ball back afterward and I think that was the most important lesson out of the whole game for us. Other than that, it showed our girls the correct way to move both on defense and offense and I believe it will be very beneficial for our team as we move along this season!,” senior captain Olivia LaBella said.

Watching higher levels of play is very important; even though the girls aren’t playing, it is very helpful to see how to be successful at the next level. The girls gained valuable knowledge that they can apply to their own games.  Junior Abby Wexler said, “It was really nice to see the Penn and Cornell players play. They clearly know the game extremely well and they were amazing to watch and learn from. Our coach worked really hard to organize this trip and made it such an amazing experience!” Last year the girls team took a trip to Cornell University where they did about the same thing. This is the start of a yearly tradition that Coach Paletta has started. It has very quickly turned into a season kick-off event that the whole team looks forward to and is able to learn a lot from.