As every year, Nijmegen organized the awesome Newcomers Tournament at the end of September for all the new players that just started playing across the Netherlands approximately four weeks before the tournament. Following a succesfull promotion period during the INKOM, the Men’s and Women’s team in Maastricht took four weeks to prepare their rookies for what was the first Lacrosse game for them. We are happy with our new players on all positions, but especially lucky with our new goalies Maxi for the men and Yaël for the women.
With about fivteen players per team, the Lamas took an early morning train to Nijmegen and after a couple of coffees, everyone was ready to step on the field. Even though it started pouring down the minute the ladies started their first game with some support from Utrecht, they took home their first victory over Leiden. The boys, with some support from Aachen, started against the home team Nijmegen and mimicked their female teammates for the first win. With such a good start for both teams in mind, both teams were eager for the second win, however both, while still fighting hard, only managed a draw. Afterwards, both teams took part in the clinics organized by Nijmegen Larosse and learned additional insights into the basics of passing, shooting and dodging. The boys were pumped after the clinics and continues with a 3:0 win over Tilburg. The ladies went for another draw – Still both teams were unbeaten. At the end of the day, the Lamas (Men) and the Lamasitas (Women) were in the final of the Newcomer tournament.
The Lamasitas had to play it out first and managed to win in regular time! For the boys, a tough game ended with a draw in regular time, leading to a Braveheart final in which two rookies had to face off against each other and try to score. Our rookie Finley won the faceoff and sprinted towards the opponents goal to miss what presumingly was his only chance. Riding hard and and incredible speed allowed him to knock out the ball of his opponent stick right when he crossed the midfield line heading towards our goal guarded by Maxi. Finley picked up the groundball and went straight back to score! A good day with two first places for the Lamas ended with a BBQ and the one or another beer.
Thanks to Nijmegen for organizing, once again, a really great tournament for our Newcomers.