Tainui Brewster makes a pass during White Pine’s home 4-1 home loss against North Tahoe on Sept. 19. (Garrett Estrada photo)
Turns out coaches can learn a thing or two alongside players. After White Pine’s 4-1 home loss against North Tahoe on Sept. 19, coach Tyler Laity admitted an experimental lineup was to blame for the Ladycats’ slow start.
“I wanted to try something different. We had worked on it all week but it just didn’t work out right,” Laity said. “I think we’ll go a different way next time we play them. It was definitely a learning experience more me.”
The coach said he and his team might have given a little too much credit to the Lakers, who are consistently among the best teams in the conference. The overreaction caused the team to play out of sync. Once the Ladycats finally found their groove, the game was already out of reach. White Pine scored its only goal with five minutes remaining in the match.
“We went back to our normal formation in the second half, which ended up giving us more success on offense. Knowing that now, I think if we played them again, it would be a much different, much closer game,” Laity said.
The Ladycats’ second home game of the weekend, against Incline on Sept. 20, proved to be a much closer affair, with the Highlanders edging the Ladycats 5-4 in a much better offensive performance by White Pine’s four-person front. The offensive output was White Pine’s largest ever against Incline according to the coach.
“We are really bummed that we lost both games, we thought we could at least get a tie out of one of those matchups. But at the same time, I’m happy to see that we can play competitively with the lake schools. It didn’t seem like they were that much better than us,” Laity said.
The coach said that overall the team played “really well” in their Saturday game and thanked the support of the home crowd for keeping the team energized. Laity gave credit to Lucy Fullmer for helping generate much of the Ladycats’ offense in the two losses.
“She played so well on Saturday and was a part of all four goals that we scored in the Incline game,” Laity said. Fullmer finished the game against Incline with two goals and two assists. She also scored White Pine’s only goal against North Tahoe.
The Ladycats will go back on the road this weekend, traveling to Pershing County High School on Sept. 26 to take on the Mustangs at 4 p.m. The Ladycats will then travel to Battle Mountain to play the Longhorns on Sept. 27 at 1 p.m.
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