ABBY ROAD: Hun School girls’ lacrosse player Abby O’Brien, right, heads upfield last Friday against a Blair Academy defender. Freshman attacker O’Brien tallied six goals in the contest but it wasn’t enough as the Raiders fell 14-10. In upcoming action, Hun, who moved to 1-1 with the defeat, plays at the Pennington School on April 14 and at the Blair Academy on April 17. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Abby O’Brien came out firing as the Hun School girls’ lacrosse team hosted Blair Academy last Friday afternoon.

Sophomore attacker O’Brien tallied three goals in the first eight minutes of the contest to help Hun jump out to a 3-1 lead.

“I was very excited; I think it is all about the timing and noticing when you have that opportunity to take the shot,” said O’Brien in assessing her hot start.

Having transferred to Hun from Montgomery High, where she never got to see the field last spring as the season was canceled due to the pandemic, O’Brien is making up for lost time.

“This is my first year of playing high school, it is my second game,” said O’Brien, who tallied four goals in her debut as Hun defeated Peddie 12-6 in its season opener on April 6.

“It is just so fun being out here with my teammates. The athletic office and the administration worked so hard for us to be able to get out here.”

Against Blair, Hun worked hard, leading 6-4 and then trailing 7-6 at halftime before the Buccaneers pulled away to a 14-10 win.

“I think there are some adjustments that we need to make on both sides,” said O’Brien, reflecting on the setback.

“We definitely fought until the end, we will be excited to get back into practice.”

O’Brien has adjusted well in making the move to Hun.

“I have a lot of family that came here, my dad came here,” said O’Brien. “It is such a great community.”

While training during the pandemic wasn’t great, O’Brien was still able to hone her game.

“It was just getting outside and practicing my skills so I could come out here and be as sharp as I can,” said O’Brien.

In addition to bringing offensive skills to the table for the Raiders, O’Brien is looking to take a bigger leadership role for the squad.

“I just want to lead this team to be the very best it can be,” said O’Brien.

“Wherever they need me, I will go and do my best to get the team excited. ”

Hun head coach Kathleen Jaeger believes that O’Brien is making a key impact for the team.

“Abby really stepped up on our attack and as a sophomore she is learning to become more of a verbal leader as well,” said Jaeger, who is in her first season at the helm of the program. “I am excited to see that come out this season.”

Jaeger was excited by her team’s fast start against Blair. “We had really nice energy, we were working as a team,” said Jaeger. 

“We were seeing all of our options in transition, on the attacking end and really connecting on defense.”

In reflecting on the loss, Jaeger acknowledged that her squad needs to work better together.

“There were a lot of adjustments that needed to be made,” said Jaeger, whose team plays at the Pennington School on April 14 and then has a rematch at the Blair Academy on April 17.

“Early in the season, a lot of new things are happening. We are trying out a lot of new things. I am excited for this week of practice and to be able to see them again in eight days. Blair had a really nice fast transition, especially off the draw, so it is learning to adjust to that and making sure that we have players in the place they need to be.”

Freshman Ava Olender got herself in the right place, tallying two goals for the Raiders.

“Ava came ready to work today, she is a worker for us,” said Jaeger, who also got goals from Priscilla Stelmach and Olivia Kim against Blair.

“I think even the girls who didn’t get goals today played supporting roles that helped Ava and Abby to step up and get those goals today.”

While Hun made some miscues along the way, the effort was there to the final horn.

“At different parts of the game, everyone excelled in certain aspects,” said Jaeger.

“Everyone makes mistakes. My big slogan is I know you are going to make a mistake, what I care about is how you make up for it; how you make up for your own and how you make up for your teammates’ mistakes. That is what I was really proud of today — how they were working hard the entire game down to that last minute.”

Looking ahead, Jaeger wants her players to pick up the pace and take better care of the ball.

“I think as a full team unit, we need to work on the fast transition and adjusting to that,” said Jaeger.

“Overall it is just making sure that we are using all of our strengths to our advantage, making up for loose balls, ground balls, and mistakes and really coming together on that aspect.”

O’Brien, for her part, is confident that Hun will come together as the spring unfolds.

“We just need to keep striving for our goals,” said O’Brien.

“Our goal is to win as a team and we are still going hard for that. We will learn from this loss, move forward, and make adjustments. We have a lot of games ahead of us and just to be able to get out and improve each game is such a great opportunity.”