Lady Bighorns end reagular season in 4th

The Lady Bighorns closed their regular season with a pair of losses last week, falling to Galena and Truckee. They enter playoffs as fourth seed.

Thursday’s game against Galena ended in a 12-3 loss. Brooklyn Whitaker, Kenna Hamlin and Sadie O’Flaherty scored for Oasis; this was also Kate Duncan’s first game as goalie. Lady Bighorns coach Lisa Swan said Duncan saved about 50 percent of the shots on the goal.

“That’s great for only having three practices and playing the No. 1 team in the league,” Swan said.

The coach said Galena was just the better team for the game. She noted the Lady Grizzlies were mostly seniors and juniors who had been playing longer. They also had a bigger team — where Galena could exchange players freely, Oasis only had two substitute players.

“Their middies were subbing in and out and we only have (a few) subs,” Swan said. “We were getting exhausted.”

On Friday Oasis played Truckee, ending in an 18-9 loss. Maiya Swan scored four goals, Whitaker scored three and Taryn Barrenchea scored two; Duncan’s saves were at 40 percent.

Coach Swan said her team played well, but ran into many of the same problems as against Galena; Truckee also has a senior-heavy team that has been playing together for awhile. Swan also said Truckee has a turf field, which caused issues for the Lady Bighorns — the team was playing on unfamiliar terrain and it made grabbing ground balls harder.

“It’s a different way of scooping up ground balls (on turf fields) and we’re not used to playing on that,” Swan said.

However, the coach said she was happy with how the season has gone. The team enters the post season in fourth place; given how young they are, Swan said this was impressive. She said she was happy with the year and wouldn’t be too upset if they did not go to state.

“If we don’t get it this year, we’ll get there next year,” she said. “I’m super proud of them for getting this far.”

She noted she has a very young team, most of whom have said they plan to come back next year; there are also some younger players who have expressed interest in playing.

The Lady Bighorns began playoffs Tuesday with another game against Galena; the results were not available at press time. The victor of the game goes to the state championship match Saturday.

During practices, Oasis has been making changes to its defense and working to improve ground balling.