SRHS womens lacrosse juggernaut keeps rolling
By Hector Trujillo
It’s hard to improve on perfection, but that is exactly what the Scripps Ranch High School womens varsity lacrosse team is trying to do this season as it aims to repeat its feat from last year when the Lady Falcons were crowned CIF San Diego Section Open Division Champions.
“We’re a very different team with a lot of different players stepping up,” head coach Michele Uhlfelder said. “They have done well with the challenges thus far. It’s really a different year compared to last, and we have some really tough competition remaining.”
The team picked up right where it left off last season, outscoring its first three opponents by a combined spread of 51-6, including a 20-1 blowout over Carlsbad High School, which was the most dominant performance of the season so far.
The Lady Falcons followed that up with impressive wins against Poway High School, San Dieguito Academy and La Costa Canyon. The team’s offense showed up big time in the following two matches against Canyon Crest Academy when they came out with a 21-5 win, along with a 19-8 victory over Sage Creek High School.
Among the standout performers this season for the team are Kayden Williamson, Kelsey McGraton, Amanda Grissom, Daylen Vilbrandt and Nora Lutz.
A very competitive match came against Coronado High School on April 4 which ended in a 14-11 victory,
and was followed by a 17-13 win against Cathedral Catholic and a 14-7 victory over San Marcos High School. SRHS then defeated Patrick Henry High 13-4 on April 11. Unfortunately, Scripps Ranch ran into a speed bump when it suffered a 15-7 loss to La Jolla High on April 13.
“The bulk of our coaching has been getting the girls to recognize that they play different roles,” Uhlfelder said. “The team has had to reinvent itself, so we’ve had to revisit a lot of our principles and strategies. Each player has really had to improve their stick skills in order to step into the system, so to speak. I think that’s where a lot of the adjustments have come.”
Uhlfelder was a four-year starter and First Team All-American at the University of Maryland along with being a two-time gold medalist on the U.S. Women’s World Cup Team. She was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2014 and is the all-time winningest coach of the Stanford women’s lacrosse team.
Scripps Ranch ends the regular season with three league games, which are a rematch against Cathedral Catholic on April 25, Patrick Henry on April 27, and La Jolla High School on May 2 – all of them at home.
