Aspen High girls lacrosse beats Battle Mountain for Trendell’s first win as coach

Chatfield’s physicality was a bit too much for the Aspen High School girls lacrosse team in their season opener on Saturday in Denver. The Chargers won 12-5 and gave the Skiers plenty of things to fine tune.

“One thing we had to work on coming out of Chatfield was our attack strategy,” AHS coach Amanda Trendell said. “The girls really focused in on that and I was happy we were able to execute it and kind of throw some new things in there. Obviously you can see from the score it definitely paid off.”

Aspen looked well prepared for its second game, Wednesday’s 11-2 cruiser over Battle Mountain on the AHS turf. The win in the home opener was the first for Trendell as Aspen’s head coach. The New York-native was a captain at Rutgers University during her senior season in 2014 and she only made her way to Aspen at the beginning of the month, after spring practices had started.

Despite the short time frame to get the team ready for the season, Trendell has already gone a long way in putting her stamp on the program.

“What is most exciting as a new coach is they really welcomed the change,” Trendell said of the players. “The change in culture — the change in expectations. They are excited about it. I think they trust the new game plan and I think they are excited about the energy I bring and the energy they bring. It’s been a really good mesh so far.”

The Skiers dominated most of the first half against Battle Mountain on Wednesday, but only led 3-1 at the break. Their offensive firepower was more noticeable in the second half when the lead blossomed to 8-1 with just under seven minutes to play.

Senior Jordan Fox led the team with four goals, including the first goal of each half. Sophomore Charlotte Howie had three goals, her most important goal coming only 30 seconds after the Huskies had gotten on the board in the first half.

Senior Caroline Moriarty also had a couple of goals for Aspen.

“It definitely feels good,” Trendell said of her first win. “Going into the second half was really more about timing, spacing, making better decisions and just kind of playing a little more team offense.”

Aspen (1-1) heads back on the road Friday with a game at Durango. AHS beat the Demons 15-0 in 2017. The Skiers next scheduled home game is Wednesday against Steamboat Springs.

The AHS boys lacrosse team hosts Montrose at 4 p.m. on Friday on the AHS turf.

acolbert@aspentimes.com