Aliso Niguel picks up another girls lacrosse victory

When Aliso Niguel girls lacrosse coach Dave Elkins assembled the inaugural team this year, he knew that he certainly had an interesting group.

The Wolverines had five players with previous lacrosse experience, including two - Sarah Jones and Taylor Scott - who played on the boys team last year.

The majority of the team is made up of athletes from other sports, including soccer, volleyball, basketball and hockey.

Despite their diverse backgrounds, the Wolverines (6-1-1) continued their successful beginning with an 8-2 road victory over Capistrano Valley on Wednesday.

“This has been an instructional year,” Elkins said. “We have had to do a lot of stick work, watching a lot of college games on TV and doing a lot of repetitive drills.”

“This team has put in a lot of work. We have been stressing teamwork to them because the best athlete doesn't always win, but the best team will.”

Francesca DeAngelis, who played basketball for the Wolverines, led the way with four goals. She has now scored 13 goals in her past three games.

The Wolverines scored the first three goals of the game, two of which came from DeAngelis and eventually took a 4-1 lead into halftime.

DeAngelis added another to open the second half and Jones also scored to give the Wolverines a 6-1 lead.

Capistrano Valley, another first-year program, inched closer on a goal from Kelsea Cecconi midway through the half.

Aliso Niguel quickly put the game away with consecutive goals from Scott and Lexi Nichols.

Aliso Niguel will conclude the week Friday when it visits Irvine. Capistrano Valley is off until next Tuesday.

In boys lacrosse:

Top-ranked Foothill will begin competition Thursday in the second annual Jerry Langkammerer Tournament hosted by St. Ignatius Prep of San Francisco.

The Knights will face some of the top teams in Northern California in the eight-team invitational, known as the “Best of the West”, starting with host St. Ignatius Prep at 10 a.m.

Foothill will also face Bellarmine Prep of San Jose on Friday at noon and Monte Vista of Danville on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com