Rossi’s nine spot leads Lady Mustangs to 13-5 victory over Notre
Dame
GILROY – Junior sniper Lauryn Rossi found her shooting touch Thursday and made visiting Notre Dame pay dearly as she netted a career-best nine goals to lead the Lady Mustang water polo team to a 13-5 home victory.
“Another incredible game. She’s our machine,” said head coach Andy Been of his leading scorer. “Our offense is built around her. We run plays to her and she always gets open. The other girls don’t mind getting her the ball.”
The Lady Mustangs came out determined to shut down the Lady Spirits and their aggressive defense was key in notching a second Tri-County Athletic League victory in the first match of a boys-girls polo doubleheader at Gilroy High School.
“The goal was to play defense. We switched our defense to play tighter and more aggressive. We learned a few new techniques that really helped the team,” Been said. “Our goal in the first quarter was to shut them out and we did. None of their top scorers got off shots, except for that one girl with that lob shot. That’s a great shot.”
Rossi netted three of Gilroy’s four first-quarter goals with teammate Simon Reyes scoring the other, while the Gilroy defense smothered all Notre Dame attacks – preventing them from getting any good looks at the net.
“At practice, I’ve been working on my shot trying to perfect it,” Rossi said. “I think we played really good. We really stepped up, especially after last game against Live Oak that made us really want this game.”
There was no let-up in the second quarter either, as Katie Peterson found the back of the net for a five-goal advantage. Notre Dame cracked the score sheet shortly after – but Rossi set up senior teammate Lindsay Been for her first of three goals on her 17th birthday. The Lady Spirits cut the gap to 6-2 before the half.
The teams exchanged goals in the third quarter with Rossi skipping a shot past the Notre Dame goalie with 2:05 remaining to match an opposing strike.
In the fourth quarter, Rossi caught fire again – sandwiching an assist to Been goal between a pair of goals for a commanding 10-3 lead. After a Been strike from the outside, Rossi scored two more before the final horn.
Up next, the Lady Mustangs will head to Salinas for an Oct. 21 road game against Salinas at Hartnell College.
