Coach Maggie Dyer has the girls off to a strong start this season with a 6-2 record. This is impressive considering the girls have already played some tough division opponents, and the schedule should get a little easier down the road.

The backcourt senior leadership of Kaitlin Mariani and Allie Museles has been crucial to the girl’s success this season. They are the team’s heartbeat: everything starts and runs through them. “It has been great to have them for me, especially in my first year playing basketball. They have already taught me so much and made my transition to basketball so much easier,” senior Karen Potts said.

The girls started out the season with three quality wins against good teams: Northwest, Walter Johnson and Seneca Valley. Each team played them tough, with scores of 49-13, 62-60, and 62-53 respectively. Starting off 3-0 with a tough division win over Walter Johnson was the girl’s goal, but they knew they had some tougher tests coming up.

Damascus has been a solid team for years in both boys’ and girls’ basketball, so coach Dyer knew this would be a big test for the girls, especially given the fact that it was away on a Friday night. The girls battled hard but ended up with a heartbreaking 46-38 loss. This was a low-scoring defensive-minded game, which is the opposite of what the girls had been used to seeing. Mariani said, “It was a tough loss for us to take. We went in confident thinking that we were the better team and going to win, but sometimes teams have off nights and that’s what happened to us.”

The girls used anger from this loss to fuel them going into the next week and got two big division wins against Richard Montgomery and Whitman. The girls are in one of the most competitive public school divisions in the state, so any division win is a meaningful one.

Then the girls went to a holiday tournament at Williamsport High school over winter break. They competed hard against some non-regional teams, finishing with a 1-1 record. Museles said “I think this tournament was a good experience for us, playing against new physical teams that we don’t normally play during the season. It was a well-run tournament and possibly something we could do next year as well.”

After the break, the girls faced arch-rival Churchill on the road and struggled, with a score of 58-28. Churchill is a good team, but the girls were still disappointed with their performance, especially against our rival. They then were able to take down Walter Johnson and Bethesda Chevy Chase, securing two more big division wins. If Churchill slips up, the girls will have a shot at the division title, which would be a huge accomplishment for the program.
The next game is Wednesday against Magruder at 7:15.