High school sports coverage is proudly supported by Maine State Credit Union. 

View 12 photos

Varsity Maine reporters ventured out Thursday to visit Cony tennis, Cape Elizabeth girls lacrosse and Poland track and field preseason practices. Here’s what we learned in Cape Elizabeth:

Last year, the Cape Elizabeth girls lacrosse team finished the regular season 6-8, drew the 13th and third-to-last seed in the Class A tournament, and then pulled off a pair of upset wins to reach the state semifinals.

Nearly a year later, the excitement is still simmering.

“That really got the energy going throughout our program,” coach Alex Spark said.

Another thing to be excited about is the size of the roster. As the Capers look to build on last year’s finish, they head into the spring with 42 players in their program — 22 to 25 of which are freshmen.

“That dropped. It was higher,” Spark said. “It’s exciting. It’s almost like a restart to that younger group of the program. If that group stays together through their senior year, it’ll be insane to watch.”

The freshmen are plentiful, and they’re talented, Spark said, which means the preseason practices have been competitive. With so much depth, starting jobs aren’t a given.

“We’ve had a couple (scrimmages), and I’d say it’s a balance,” she said. “We really want to have a good time at practice, we’re having fun playing together, but at the same time, you know there are those kids that know they fall into that group of other talented kids.

“(They’re) definitely trying to make their mark, leave it all out on the field, which is what we tell them: every day, you are working to earn something.”

Boys vs. girls

One highlight from the Capers’ preseason was an early scrimmage in which the girls played the boys team, with a twist: The boys used the girls’ sticks, and the girls played with the boys’.

“That was super fun,” senior attack Lulu Stocklein said. “I got one of those big, long (defenseman) poles, which was so fun to play around with. Everyone had a blast.”

As for the game itself?

“I think we held our own, pretty well,” Stocklein said. “They were struggling with our sticks, that’s for sure, but we definitely put up some points.”

Her sister Wylie, a junior attack, was quick with her takeaway.

“We definitely beat the boys,” she said. “That (scrimmage) was probably the most fun thing we did.”

Tough way to start the season

As Thursday’s practice began, senior midfielder and captain Maddie de Vries warmed up by playing catch while wearing a plastic mask, necessary protection after she was hit in the face by a ball in one of the Capers’ first practices.

“I didn’t think much of it, until I got two black eyes,” she said. “(The nose) was not displaced, luckily, so there’s not much I can do but wear this atrocious mask.”

de Vries said the injury occurred last Friday, and resulted in a slight fracture to one side of her nose. She said that area of her face still hurts when she runs, but that the mask is largely precautionary.

“This is to make sure it doesn’t become more displaced, because then that would result in surgery,” she said. “It’s not too bad anymore.”

de Vries said she didn’t think she was hurt too badly — at first.

“I was a little embarrassed; I didn’t want to say that it hit me. They (asked) ‘Did it hit your nose,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, I’m good,'” she said. “A couple of seconds later blood started coming out of both nostrils, so I was like, ‘Yeah, no, I don’t think I’m good.'”