The Black and White

by Zoe Anderson Edited by Jillian Mastrostefano

Pilgrim’s Girl’s Lacrosse team has had intensely challenging seasons for the last five years–until now. For Division III they are currently sitting in third place behind Smithfield High School and Tollgate, in hopes of making the playoffs this year. This year’s team has an amazing dynamic on and off the field with a mixture of all grades starting on varsity. Assistant Coach Martha Doyle had her own way of describing this year’s team, “The 2026 girls lacrosse season can be described perfectly with one word – perseverance. This team has a ton of talent. They put the pedal to the metal right out of the gate. We suffered a few injuries with critical players, which impacted a few games, but ultimately this team has stayed focused and determined.” The Pilgrim Girl’s Lacrosse players are driven with hope of a comeback this season after repeated ups and downs for the past few years.

This season the team has four captains: Lily Farrell, Laryssa Farrell, Taylor Mooney, & Zoe Anderson. All of these captains have had successful seasons throughout their four years playing. Senior Captain Lily Farrell recently scored her 100th high school career goal against East Providence on May 8th. Lily and her twin sister, Laryssa Farrell, have both had successful plays so far, taking the draw this season at the start of each play. Senior Captain Taylor Mooney has also had a lot of success this season with two hat tricks to date this season. Goalie and Senior Captain, Zoe Anderson, is having a great season as well, currently being number one in the state for save percentage.

The freshmen success on varsity has been shocking this season with Keira Lindman already becoming one of the team’s top scorers. Sareen Khatchadourian also made varsity this year and has started ever since without having any prior experience in the sport. She has been a stand out player on defense by causing intense pressure on the other teams with many interceptions too. 

This year’s senior class on the team is the largest it has ever been with twelve graduating seniors. The seniors are on a high so far, maintaining their motivation to keep going with their first successful high school season. Senior Captain Taylor Mooney states, “I’m super proud of how our team has grown to trust each other and that if one of us makes a mistake the others on the team will be behind us ready to make that mistake an opportunity”. 

Along with all of the seniors leaving, the team also received the news that the head Coach, Jess McCaughey, will be resigning this year as head coach, and volunteer Coach Hannah Marley will be replacing her next season. She will be greatly missed by the whole team, but they are all excited for her and this next chapter of her life. Not only are the players motivated to get every win for their own successful season, but also to win for Coach McCaughey to go out on top after the past 10 years she has dedicated to this team. Coach McCaughey looks forward to the rest of the season and states her hopes for the rest. “Super excited about the season we’re having- sitting in at the moment and knowing we’re in playoff contention is amazing. The last time we made playoffs was 2021, and this team, especially our seniors, deserve to play post-season. That being said, we are not gonna get ahead of ourselves. We take it one day at a time. We still have five games left and we just need to keep up our momentum, positivity, and teamwork and make it happen. I’m super confident in this team and so come to see how far we can go.”