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Summit girls lacrosse team falls short against Aspen, fares better than 1st meeting

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Cody Jones

Cody Jones/Summit Daily News
Summit senior Piper Smith sprints down the field during the Tigers' home game against Aspen High School on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Summit fared better in its second meeting against Aspen this season, but fell 23-7.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

The Summit High School girls lacrosse team came into its home game against Aspen on Wednesday, March 19, seeking to get back in the win column.

After beginning the season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2009, Summit recorded its first loss of the season against Aspen in Pitkin County on Thursday, March 13.

Although the 23-3 loss was not what the Tigers were looking for, the team used the weekend to mull over the game before getting the opportunity to even the score against the Aspen Skiers in Breckenridge.

With the sun intermittently breaking through the clouds and shining light down onto Climax Molybdenum Field, the 4A Mountain East league game officially got underway. The Aspen Skiers were the first to score, charging down the field and putting a shot behind senior goalie Schuyler ClarkArens.

The early goal stunned Summit momentarily, but sophomore Jenavive Bradford soon evened the score with a goal of her own.

The goal jump-started the Summit offense, leading to more offensive opportunities. After driving toward the net in search for another goal, Summit fell back and tried to defend a tough offensive front from Aspen. With quick dashes to the net, the Skiers netted another goal.

The second goal for the Skiers was the push the team needed to really get its offense going. Distributing the ball around the field, Aspen scored seven unanswered goals.

Trailing 8-1, sophomore Ava Brady sprinted down the field, powered through a horde of Aspen defenders and put a second goal in the back of the net for the Tigers.

With some momentum beginning to build due to the Brady’s goal, Summit looked to cut further into its deficit in the second quarter. Much like the first frame, the Skiers wasted little time in putting points on the board, scoring two goals in the first 45 seconds. 

The goals forced Summit to tighten up on both ends of the field, eventually leading to several shots on goal. The chances came close to scoring, but were kept wide by the Aspen defense. 

Summit then successfully prevented Aspen from scoring a goal before Brady took it the length of the field and scored her second goal. Despite the strong effort from Summit, Aspen scored a flurry of goals and went into halftime leading 15-3.

After closing the first half with three unanswered goals, Aspen experimented with different offensive schemes. Although Summit played tight defense, Aspen found ways to pass the ball into open space and advance the score to 19-3.

Near the end of the third quarter, Brady completed her hat trick, scoring a third goal. The goal from Brady then led to Summit’s fifth goal moments later.

Trailing 20-5, the Tigers came out of the brief intermission between quarters and put a goal on the scoreboard. This time, Bradford was awarded with the goal after bouncing a shot off of the ground.

Close to a minute later, freshman Jocylynn Bradford made it two unanswered goals for Summit by running through the Aspen defense and firing a shot past the Aspen goalie. The late effort from Summit was enough to cut into Aspen’s lead, but the Skiers scored three goals to conclude the game.

Summit fell to Aspen, 23-7.

“I know looking at the score can be discouraging, but honestly we have improved so much,” senior Katie Alexander said. “I think that is because we are a super adaptable team. … It is super fun because even if something goes wrong, we are not afraid to make that mistake and learn from it.”

Summit is now is 2-2 overall on the season and 1-2 in league play. Over the next week, the Tigers will play two league games on the road. Summit will travel to Edwards to play Battle Mountain High School on Friday, March 21, and will then play Steamboat Springs on Tuesday, March 25.

“Playing these more challenging teams like Aspen, it can be easy to get in your head, but we didn’t do any of that,” Alexander said. “In the last quarter, we picked it up. If we can play that well against a super-talented, more experienced team, I think it will be super exciting to see what we can do when we get to some easier games.”

Summit’s next home game will be against Conifer on Saturday, March 29.

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