The girls varsity basketball team lost to Fairfax High School with a score of 43-60 on Dec. 13, making the current team record 4-2.
Marshall started slow during the first quarter and trailed during the second quarter.
“We needed to talk more on defense,” junior Elyse Smith said.
The Statesmen played substantially better during the second half with senior Christine LaBarbera’s rebounding skills, two three-pointers and three more points for nine.
Junior Maggie MacDonnell, scored nine points with two threes.
“Size is our weakness,” junior Jessica Geiger said. “We’re too small of a team.”
However, although size is an issue, “the team gets along very well and is very close,” according to sophomore Victoria Robinson.
The team is still experiencing success; it defeated the Falls Church High School Jaguars with a score of 61-32 on Dec. 9.
“We struggled during the first quarter, but during the second quarter we became stronger on both defense and offense,” Smith said.
During the first quarter, Marshall was winning by a score of 9-7, with senior Rachel Waldron as the leading scorer.
During the second quarter Marshall increased the score to 21-9.
In the third and fourth quarters, Marshall led with scores of 44-17 and 61-32, respectively. “We were slow in the first half. Falls Church was pressuring the team.
“As the game went on the pressure leveled off and the team was more relaxed and more confident,” new head coach Chad Scott said.
Scott has had four years of experience coaching basketball, three as an assistant coach and one as a head coach after the departure of former head coach Noel Klippenstein.
According to senior Annie Greenwood, Scott “has a new coaching strategy and the team works really well together because we’re all really good friends.”
With the current team record, the team still needs to improve.
According to Scott, “the team’s rebounding and shooting is not the best and needs to work on minimizing offense mistakes.”
“We didn’t make shots we could have easily made and our rebounding wasn’t the best,” senior Janelle Yahn said.
Despite these weaknesses, the team “expects a winning season and hope[s] that even for games that the team loses, it would be a close game, but we are coming strong into the season” Yahn said.
The team has a “strong defense and is able to shoot three point shots well,” Smith said.
“All five games were away. It was tough not having any at home,” Scott said.
“But it’s a good experience to battle tough teams on the road.”