Meridian’s two lacrosse squads both played home games on back-to-back nights this week, as the boys hosted Independence on Wednesday and the girls took on Washington-Liberty on Thursday. Both teams entered the week with 4-1 records that they looked to build upon.

Unfortunately, the boys didn’t have much luck as they fell to an Independence squad that seemed to have them outmatched. Independence scored first and then took a 2-1 lead after Rex Crespin evened it up, before Meridian seemed to have the momentum going into the half with goals from Daniel Oppenheimer and Grayson Kusic to take their first lead. But then Independence got a tying tally with six seconds to go before the intermission, and stormed out of the gates with the first four goals after the break to take a commanding lead. The Mustangs got one more tally from Kusic at the end of the third quarter, but Independence expanded on its advantage with three more in the fourth quarter to beat Meridian 10-4.

The girls, on the other hand, were their usual dominant selves as they faced Washington-Liberty on a sunny Thursday evening the next night. Allie Campbell got things going 43 seconds into the game and then Tilly Gale and Caroline Carmody both chipped in shortly afterwards, making it 3-0 not even two minutes in. Washington-Liberty got one back, but the Mustangs scored twelve of the next fourteen to lead 15-3 at halftime. The second half was played mostly by reserves, and the home team waltzed to a 22-5 rout as Gale scored five times, Lila Deering added four, and four different Mustangs found the back of the net twice.

For the boys, Wednesday was their first of three games in three consecutive days, with the others at Washington-Liberty and Sidwell Friends. Meanwhile the girls will play a doubleheader on Saturday as they compete against James Robinson and Langley in tournament action at Centerville High School.