Last season, Rye High’s girls varsity lacrosse team finished with a 15-5 win-loss record and made it to the finals of the Section 1 Class C tournament – before losing to John Jay High by a score of 10-8. So it’s no surprise that this year’s version of Garnets girls lacrosse has been preparing, informally, for the upcoming season since November, especially since lacrosse is the primary sport for many of the team’s members.

Expectations are high this spring among the players, with six returning seniors (Lily Whaling, Della Goodman, Mali White, Kareena Chader, Meredith Kenny, and Paige Vanneck) and a talented roster overall that includes seven players already committed to play at the collegiate level (six of whom will play for NCAA Division I teams). Those going on to play in college include Whaling (Cornell), Goodman (Georgetown), White (Davidson), Chader (Trinity), Mary Sack (UPenn), Caroline Doyle (Duke), Kathleen Denvir (Brown) and Katherine Ebeling (Columbia).

The team has deliberately organized a highly competitive regular-season schedule, hoping that players will then be at their best when playoffs start in mid-May. Two games are against nationally ranked Connecticut opponents (as determined by USA Lacrosse Magazine’s late February ratings): fifth-ranked New Canaan on April 3, and 13th-ranked Wilton on April 16. Both games will be played at home in Nugent Stadium.

Notable challengers in the local schedule include John Jay Cross River, Nyack, Horace Greeley, Suffern, and Bronxville. Nyack and John Jay Cross River are expected to be the Garnets’ biggest obstacles to a New York Section 1 title this spring.

In addition to talent and depth, Coach Michelle Mason said, the team has exceptional chemistry this season, which officially starts March 21 with a 5 p.m. away game against Lakeland High School. That game is to be played at Walter Panas High School in the northwest corner of Westchester County.