A Year of Firsts for MIA Girls Lacrosse

On Friday, April 5th, the Marco Island Academy girl's lacrosse team played their first home game of the season against Estero High School. They fought hard yet ended with the loss and concluded their season with an exciting home game. Despite the score of 8-17 against the Wildcats, the players still made history of being the first girls' lacrosse team for the school. 

Naia Lendrihas was the top scorer of the game with four goals, followed by Jessica Vorderstrasse with two, and Meghan Donaldson and Gracie Johnson both with one. 

The game started out with high energy both on the field and in the bleachers. An abundance of students showed up to watch the team’s first-ever home game, and the players were evidently excited to be playing for them. Naia Lendrihas scored four goals in the first half, three of them happening in the second quarter. 

This is the first year of the girl's lacrosse program being at MIA. Only three girls on the 24-player roster have played in previous years and there are no seniors on the team. Just about every player on the team walked on the field early this year and picked up a stick for the first time.  

“It was awesome because there were a lot of firsts,” said Head Coach Kyle Ginther. “The first game we got to play was against Estero, so to see how much better we’ve gotten and how much we’ve improved from the beginning of the season to now has just been really cool.” 

When MIA played Estero at the beginning of the season, Estero won with a score of 15-3. The Rays have made some clear improvements to almost triple their original score against the Wildcats. 

Michelle Acosta, a first year lacrosse player, had many encouraging words about her team. “I really love our positivity because even though we’re a brand new team, every game we’re so positive. We always cheer on all our teammates and it’s so much fun to learn a new sport with great girls.” 

For this being the Ray’s first year, they have shown themselves to be a worthy match for many teams. While they have fallen to some bigger and more competitive schools, they still play with high tenacity at each and every game.  

The Rays (1-6) take on the Seahawks of Community School (9-4) on Tuesday, April 9th, in the first round of districts.