Fullerton lost against South Division Champions Cal State San Marcos Cougars on Saturday’s game with a final score of 15-5.

The San Marcos athletes were noticeably quick on their feet, and in turn, Hornets made sure to communicate effectively to heighten their defense.

The first half started off shakily. Within the first few minutes of the game, Fullerton was yellow-carded over a head-butt. Still, Hornet assistant coaches insisted the ladies shake off their doubts and push on aggressively.

From the get-go, the Cougars athletes proved why they were worthy of their title. At one point they scored three times in the span of 90 seconds. They finished off this half with a gap of 10-2.

In the second half, Hornets started to pick up speed with a stronger line of defense. Head coach Pan Lewin commented, “We started to organize better on defense. We were communicating. We kinda picked up on their tendencies when they attacked and we adjusted to it. In the offense, when we were running our plays, we were a little bit more patient and took shots when we got up there.”

Sophomore defender Kayla Meza and freshman defender Alexa Orozco both stood out as feisty competition. Lewin listed these two as essential players with big potential.

In terms of scoring, Freshman attacker Morgan Dack snuck in two goals against San Marcos. Coaches and onlookers on the sidelines cheered her on as the MVP. “This is my first year playing lacrosse so they like to say stuff like that because I caught on pretty quickly. They’re just joking with me but it’s nice to hear that,” Dack responded.

Fullerton scored three more times in the second half and San Marcos added five more points to their lead. Hornets held the greater number of penalties, 3-2, but no injuries were recorded on either side.

Coach Lewin saw their loss as a learning opportunity, “I think the takeaway here is that San Marcos is the number one in the south division, and we played really strongly against them at times. So we can gain confidence from this game and realize that we can hang with these four-year schools and these tough teams.”

San Marcos’ head coach only had good things to say towards her opponents. “Their passes were great. Like I was telling them, even though the difference was high they definitely had something that we needed to play against, which is girls with great communication and stick skills.”

The Hornets next game is on Sunday, Mar. 8, at UC San Diego against the Tritons at 12 p.m.