Rebels Girls’ Lax Looks to Compete in D-I

CRANSTON—The South Kingstown High girls’ lacrosse team opened up its season at the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Injury Fund Round Robin Tournament at Cranston Stadium on Sunday.

Each of the 10 Division-I teams present at the Round Robin played two 25-minute games with running time.

In a pair of games, the Rebels lost to Barrington High 6-4 and North Kingstown High 8-1, their first taste of D-I competition.

“We ran into some old practices in terms of just trying to outrun a defense down the field instead of passing,” South Kingstown head coach Jeff Feaster said.  

“There were too many missed passes, I mean we had girls in spots and then you miss, NK recovers pretty quickly and we saw the same thing with Barrington," he added.

South Kingstown is making a big leap this season, moving up from the lowest level of competition in Division-III to highest in D-I.

“For us this is good because we moved up essentially two divisions from three to one, it’s a big jump, the speed of the game picks up significantly,” Feaster said.

“I think they can play, but I think they have to learn that nobody’s going to let you get the ball and you’re just going to have to take it.  I didn’t think that we looked bad, I just think that we got outhustled a lot.”

When any team makes a jump as big as South Kingstown has this season, it is almost a given that they are going to experience some serious growing pains.

“I don’t want to take too many.  I just want people to know that we were on the field, I don’t want it to be practice for them, I want teams to know that we were there,” Feaster said.

“I don’t want to be the team that other team’s want to play on senior night because they think that they are going to get a win.”

In order for the Rebels to be competitive this season it is going to start with senior captains Heather Pepe, Chloe Cullen and Hayley Feaster.

“I’m looking for my seniors to demonstrate the heart that they are capable of, they’ve been playing with me for a long time,” Feaster said.  “In general, I would like to see the captains Heather, Chloe and Hayley demonstrate their leaderships, and show the rest of the team what to expect.”

The Rebels will have their first chance to test their mettle in D-I on Tuesday, April 5th when they host North Kingstown at 4 p.m. at Curtis Corner Middle School.