As the beginning of lacrosse season approached, I was extremely eager to see how my team would compare to its competition. We were scheduled to play in a preseason tournament in Savannah, Georgia, and I was confident that we were ready for the challenge. We played two games on the first day of the tournament and ended up mightily crushing our opponents. Unfortunately, a system of bad weather came through, and the remaining games of the tournament were canceled. However, because of our two sweeping victories, my team ended up winning first place. This boosted my team’s confidence tremendously and set the stage for the beginning of an exciting season.

As a result of our overwhelming victories during preseason, many of my teammates became a bit overconfident. During the practices prior to our first game, it was obvious that we were overrating our abilities and were developing an arrogant attitude. Basically, we felt invincible, and we went into our first game believing we would win. However, the opposing team had a different plan in mind. They came in fired up and ready to play and ended up beating us by several goals. Unfortunately this losing trend continued and we didn’t end up with another win until our fifth game. Needless to say, we were shocked and embarrassed. The young team composed of mostly freshman and a few upperclassmen was in desperate need of leadership.

Halfway through the season, our record was three and five, and it was obvious that we needed to turn things around and start winning some games. I am not sure what happened, but somehow we came together and started thinking and playing as a team. We had experienced our share of adversity and were ready to move forward! Our losing streak ended, and we won several games in a row. When all was said and done, our record was eight and eight, and we ended up qualifying for the playoffs.

In spite of the many ups and downs we encountered throughout the season, we entered the playoffs with confidence. The first game was very important and would determine our ranking. Unfortunately, we ended up losing and were ranked 12th out of 16 teams which meant we would be facing elimination against the 5th seeded team. As it turned out, this was a team that had defeated us before, but we knew could beat them if we stayed focused and gave it our all. Our resolve was strong, and we celebrated a hard fought victory. Our next adversary was a team that had beat us 20-4 during the regular season. This game started out with a bang, and before we knew it we were up 2-0 at half-time and ended up winning with a final score of 5-3. This meant that we had a chance of winning third place overall. Every member of our team was ecstatic and more determined than ever to walk away with another victory.

I was so excited about the final game of the tournament that I could barely sleep. The next morning, I woke up, ate a big breakfast, and headed to the field. Compared to our opponents, we were very young and inexperienced. As I approached the field and saw them warming up, it was obvious they were bigger, stronger, and more disciplined than us. The game started, and by halftime we were down 6-1 and didn’t have much hope for a comeback. However, we were determined not to give up without a fight. We managed to score a few goals during the second half, but we simply couldn’t hold them, and we ended up losing 12-4. We all felt an overwhelming sense of grief and disappointment, but we held our heads up high and went over to shake hands with our worthy opponents.

Even though we lost the third place game in the tournament, our team was stronger than ever. We had overcome adversity and came together to play as a team. Each player learned a valuable lesson that they could apply to other areas of their life. We were upset that the season had come to an end, but we were also ecstatic thinking about the great opportunities and memories that would come in the upcoming season.