LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Miramonte Outlasts Rival Campolindo


left to right: #45 Hannah Perkins, #1 Lindsay Blore, #33 Kisten Park, #14 Lauren Dougherty, #5 Rachel Ozer Photo Andy Scheck

The Acalanes, Campolindo, and Miramonte women's lacrosse teams have all had dominant seasons thus far. With all three teams well ahead of the DFAL pack, it seems pretty clear that a Lamorinda school will come out top dog in the standings. In the end, it will come down to head-to-head match-ups.

One of these games occurred on Friday, April 30th, a match rescheduled from earlier in the season. The game featured Campolindo vs. Miramonte.

The last time the two faced off, back in March, the Cougars pulled out a tight 11-9 victory thanks to an incredible showing by their star senior, Rachel Ozer, who had seven goals and one assist as well as solid two goal performances by senior Jennifer Hofmann and sophomore Hannah Perkins. Including that previous victory, Campolindo was riding a 10-game winning streak going into the Miramonte match.

The Matadors, on the other hand, were out to prove themselves to the league after being blown out by Acalanes 7-15 in mid-April. The loss to Acalanes set off a spark for the Matadors and they went on to outscore their opponents 48-12 over the next three games.

For the Friday rivalry match-up, Miramonte's game plan seemed pretty simple, completely eliminate Ozer's offensive prowess. Throughout the entire game, Ozer had one defender matched-up on her as well as a fierce double team every time she got the ball. However, even with the extra pressure, Campolindo's offense was still able to get off many shots on goal. These shot were to no avail as Miramonte's junior goalie Dani Albo was untouchable in the net. Throughout most of the first half the Cougars could not develop an offensive rhythm while Miramonte's goals kept coming. Heading into halftime the score was 5-3, Miramonte.

Toward the beginning of the second half, Campolindo's offense hit its stride and was able to bring the game to within one goal. But just as the game got close, Miramonte brought it back in its favor, building a solid 8-5 lead late in the game. Another late goal by Campolindo brought the Cougars to within two, but it was too little and late as the Matadors defense held off Campolindo for the final two minutes and took the win 8-6. Miramonte's lead scorer was freshman Lauren Dougherty.

Reflecting on the loss, Campolindo senior defenseman Kelly Clarke said, "We just didn't run our plays like we normally do because the stress got to us. Next time we need to make sure we keep our focus throughout the game."

Miramonte pulled off the upset and asserted themselves as a strong contender for the DFAL championship. Ozer was held to just one goal and despite an impressive effort by Hofmann (four points off two goals and two assists) to maximize on the Ozer double-team, Miramonte proved to be to solid on defense and explosive on offense.

The loss dropped Campo into second place in DFAL (7-1) and brought Miramonte within a half game of second (7-2). Since the loss to Miramonte, Campolindo has dropped two games to Acalanes. Campolindo falls to 8-4 in league and third place in the DFAL. Miramonte has possession of second place. Acalanes remains in first seed with a perfect 11-0 DFAL record.