CARRYING ON: Hun School girls’ lacrosse player Bridget -Carrezola hustles up the field last Thursday as Hun hosted Princeton High in its season opener. Sophomore transfer Carrezola had a big game in her Hun debut, scoring five goals but it wasn’t enough as the Raiders fell 19-8 to the Little Tigers. On Monday, Carrezola chipped in three goals as Hun defeated Lawrence 17-2 to move to 1-1. In upcoming action, the Raiders play at the Lawrenceville School on April 6 and host Princeton Day School on April 11. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Liz Cook conceded that her Hun School girls’ lacrosse team suffered from some opening day jitters as it hosted Princeton High last Thursday to start the 2016 campaign.

“I think we came in a little nervous, we were a little tight out there,” said Hun head coach Cook, whose team trailed 8-5 at half but never got closer as PHS pulled away to a 19-8 victory.

“We were not as relaxed as we should be; we play so relaxed in practice. We are so great together in practice and then we got out there and we were a little tight. We will loosen up.”

Cook got some great play from sophomore newcomer Bridget Carrezola, who tallied five
goals in her Hun debut.

“Bridget gives us a spark; she goes to goal when she feels like she needs to,” said Cook.

“She can put the ball in the net for us and she did that today. She gives it 120 percent, she is awesome.”

On defense, junior goalie Maddie McNulty and sophomore defender Kendall Dandridge provided a spark for the Raiders.

“That score doesn’t reflect how McNulty played, she had some beautiful saves and kept us in there,” said Cook.

“I had a new player, Kendall Dandridge, back there on defense and she was in the right place. It is the soccer footwork and she is going to get the hard hat today for the tough play.”

After getting beaten on draws and ground balls by PHS, Hun will need to show more toughness collectively.

“On the 50/50 balls, there were so many balls that went to the 30 and I said to my girls there is this big scuffle and PHS always came out with the ball, that is something we definitely need to work on,” said Cook, who got some good work from her team on Monday as Hun rolled to a 17-2 win over Lawrence High as junior Shannon Dudeck scored four goals with senior Allie Callaway and Carrezola adding three apiece.

“We need to work on being a little tougher. We are nice kids, we are going to work on being a little tougher.”

In Cook’s view, Hun had enough nice moments against PHS to feel good about itself going forward.

“There were total moments of brilliance, we had some beautiful transitions,” said Cook, whose team plays at the Lawrenceville School on April 6 and hosts Princeton Day School on April 11.

“I think we had tons of communication out there. PHS was just too much for us today but we will get it.”