The Lady Cardinals go 2-2 in Aggieland tournament

Sophomore defensive captain Kamilla Ledergerber surveys the field in search for the ball, and her eyes follow her opponent: No. 45 on the JV Bowie Women’s Lacrosse team. No. 45 makes her way down the field, swerving and avoiding all physical contact while carrying her precious cargo, the ball. Ledergerber isn’t intimidated. Not until she gets sent straight to the ground, left in shock as she can only watch with tears in her eyes as No. 45 cruises past her.

The Bellaire Women’s Lacrosse team participated in the annual Aggieland tournament from Jan. 26-28 at Texas A&M University, College Station. The JV team had a 2-2 record, playing against Bowie, Austin, Anderson and Plano. The varsity women’s lacrosse team went 2-1.

After playing aggressively and scoring goals, the JV team pulled off a 5-0 win.

“I think JV played pretty well against Anderson. I wasn’t sure how the game would go walking into it because most of our team is relatively new,” Ledergerber said. “Half of our team knows the rules and how to play, while the other half is brand new.”

“The game against Anderson gave us a feeling of relief that we actually won. It was nice to feel motivated going into the next match,” sophomore defender Lauren Hare said.

In their second game, JV lost to Austin High School 8-1. The Lady Cardinals struggled with maintaining control of the game, and despite blocking several goals, their result was utterly disappointing.

Ledergerber tried to provide defensive support for her teammates, but their performance was easily outmatched by a talented Maroons team.

“Austin just had a lot more experience than us, especially for a JV team,” Ledergerber said. “We just weren’t at their level.”

Bellaire played Bowie their first game early Saturday morning, winning 3-0. The Lady Cardinals played aggressively, controlling possession and scoring goal after goal against the weak defense of Bowie.

Ledergerber is proud of how the JV team played, especially the freshmen.

“The Bowie players seemed very new, they didn’t seem familiar with the rules. The freshmen all played very well in that game in my opinion – they really showed their potential that I didn’t know they had,” Ledergerber said. They played good lacrosse, and I’m proud of them.”

JV lost their last game of the weekend to Plano, with a final score of 6-1.

“We were very tired before the Plano game already because we had just finished our previous game. We didn’t know we had to play right after, and we had never heard of Plano, so we showed up to the game blindly,” Hare said. Most of their team were varsity players with a lot more experience, and they were very good.”

Ledergerber strives to act as a leader on the field, helping when she can and providing some advice to others.

“I didn’t really have the ball in my possession a whole lot, and when I did, I often got carried away and dropped it, so that’s something I have to work on myself,” Ledergerber said. “As a team, we could definitely work on crashing more, we struggled with that in Aggieland.”

The Bellaire Womens Varsity team ended the weekend with a 2-1 record. This was their first time playing together, so this outcome was expected.

“I think we played pretty nicely for our first game together,” junior and varsity defense captain Astrid Ajatta said.

The Varsity team has more to work on now that they know what their weaknesses are on the field.

“I definitely think we need to work more on communication, since miscommunication is where we often messed up,” Ajatta said. “It’s such a large field, so we really need to communicate effectively if we want to be successful.”

On Saturday night, the JV and Varsity teams exchanged gifts between big sisters and little sisters. Big sis little sis exchanges only happen during Aggieland, where an upperclassmen is paired with an underclassmen. They give each other their favorite candies, snacks or makeup.

“I like the Aggieland tradition where we do team bonding, usually JV and Varsity split off into groups based on grade level, so there’s multiple different friend groups,” Ledergerber said. “The teams aren’t very close, so it was nice to talk to people I usually don’t talk to.”

Ajatta likes team bonding exercises and events, but believes a real bond can be formed on the field.

“We did a lot of team bonding while in Aggieland, but I feel like actually playing on the field is when we really bond as a team,” Ajatta said.

Ajatta believes that team bonding is crucial to success on the field.

“I think the team bonding on Saturday night was very important, especially at the beginning of the year, you get to know who you’re playing with and who’s on your team,” Ajatta said. “Our bond off the field will transfer to on the field.”

“You get to really know everybody playing this sport, which I think is the best part of lacrosse,” Ajatta said.