During an exciting night of scrimmages, Lane’s gymnasium came alive with a spirited student section and performances from the band, majorettes, dance and flags. Like a football homecoming game, the euphony of trumpets and drums energized the gym Friday night, creating a great deal of excitement for players on the court. For the Girls Varsity Basketball team, this was quite certainly the case.

Three days earlier, the team had a successful start to their season with a 49-41 win at Niles North on Nov. 16, Lane’s dynamic coming to life in swift offense and strong communication. The strength in their unity as a team was challenged at the Green and Gold game, where players were split into Team Green and Team White. But being separated to play against each other revealed the team’s many other strengths.

Players’ faces lit up with laughs and smiles as they faced their own teammates in what was supposed to be a casual scrimmage, but the team’s competitive nature would eventually emerge in the second half. As each team tallied up fouls and fast breaks, White ultimately seized the win over Green, 39-36.

“I think that for us, it was a lot about defense,” said Team White guard Marissa Ulie. “We did a good job boxing out, and Green Team even came back at one point. We had to focus on not letting them score.”

Team Green guard Eliza McHale noted the competitive nature of Friday night’s scrimmage.

“It was really fun to compete against each other since we’re all friends, and we also have rivalries,” McHale said. “We thought we were really fast and we worked with that. We also had a lot of good shooters so we tried to get in more shots and run our plays.”

As is typical with student athletes, playing with school spirit filling the stands has added to mounting energy and excitement following a COVID-riddled era of sports.

“Getting back and starting up again, it’s really exciting,” said Team Green point guard Mimi Rector. “This whole season with varsity, the energy’s up.”

Lane went on to face Lyons Township on Nov. 20 in their second away game of the season, losing 78-11. The team will be on the road to play the Wheaton North Falcons on Nov. 26. Following Friday’s match will be the Lyons Thanksgiving Tournament the weekend of Nov. 27, where Lane will go up against the Argo Argonauts on Saturday.