The Tiverton girls lacrosse team hugged their teary senior captains on the field for the last time after falling to powerhouse Lincoln 9-4 in the Division-4 semifinals at Lincoln on Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s a little devastating,” said senior co-captain Samantha Borden. “I love this team. We play as a family and have great chemistry. It’s the closest I've ever felt on any team.”

Co-captain Delinda Carvalho echoed the sentiment.

“I’m so grateful for everyone on the team,” she said. “This year was one of the best that we've played. We came in strong and we just tried our best and that's what really mattered.”

Tiverton head coach Mikella DaSilva said the Tigers had difficulty with the sweltering weather as well as the Lions and referees, who called a tight semifinals game.

“It was a game of attrition,” she said. “Trying to play through all of that was very difficult. The team gave it their best shot. They played through all the cards, they played through fouls and they left it all out on the field. We just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.”

The Tigers scored just four goals during the loss. Senior attacker Emily Norris scored three and Avery Craig added one, but they couldn’t keep up the Lions in the second half. Norris cut the lead to 5-3 after netting her second goal in the third quarter. But Lincoln promptly marched down the field and netted a goal to push the lead to 6-3. The Lions scored two-straight goals to lead 8-3 before Norris added her third goal.

Tigers offense shined throughout the season

The offense played well through out the course of the season. The Tigers scored 125 goals as a team, while yielding 107 goals in their 16 games. Craig scored 42 goals to lead Tiverton in scoring. Norris scored 30, Addie Messenger 24, Samantha Borden 18, Delinda Carvalho 5, Ava Lagace 4, Angelleena Cordeiro 2 and Sydney Oliveira 1.

“After completely missing the playoffs last year and then making it to the semis was impressive,” said Coach DaSilva, the Tiverton field hockey coach who took on the team last spring. “I Absolutely could not be more proud of the team and players.”

Defense stands tall in loss

The Tiverton defense stood tall after battling the Lions offensive attack for much of the game. Especially senior Nick Brennan, the Tigers slight framed five-foot tall goal keeper, who uses he/they pronouns. His light-brown eyes and short strawberry-colored hair are unrecognizable under the goalie gear. Brennan, made eight saves during the semifinals loss which was both mentally and physically taxing for the keeper.

“It’s a lot of mental pressure,” he said. “It's less physical, more mental. “Sometimes it feels like it's all on you because you're the one protecting it all. It's really hard, especially because I've never played this sport in my life.”

Brennan was the Tigers field hockey goalie since sophomore year and followed head coach Mikella DaSilva to the lacrosse team. He was quickly deemed the back up goal keeper last spring and made 72 saves between the pipes as the starter this season. Brennan helped the Tigers to a 9-7 record overall and helped the team crush Classical 14-6 in the quarterfinals.

"Nick is an absolutely, fantastic goalie,” said Norris, a Tigers’ co-captain. “He puts his all into every single game and every single practice. He worked hard not just for himself, but for the team. He knew how important it was to everyone.”

Making saves more painful in lacrosse

Brennan said that making saves in lacrosse is much more painful than in field hockey, where the goalies normally wear heavy padding, like in ice hockey, to block shots. Lacrosse goalies wear less padding so they can be more mobil and start the attack once the save has been made. Also the field hockey ball is slightly heavier and is played on the ground, while the lacrosse ball is made to play in the air.

“It hurts,” he said. “I’m using football padding so I can cover extra spaces that aren’t covered by the lacrosse gear. I also have knee pads, shin guards and sometimes I use shoulder pads and arm pads, but not all the time.”

He praised his defensive back line of Kennedy Herfert, Juniper Merkle, Adelaide Pimental and midfielders Delinda Carvalho and Brooklyn Correia for helping him to keep the ball out of goal all season.

“They're amazing and I love them all,” he said. “I’ve never seen defense try so hard in my life. I'm honored to have played with them and I'm proud of how far we came as a team.”