On April 3rd, a brutally blustery day with plenty of wind, Kent’s varsity softball team marched onto the field, facing the weather with undaunted faces. Since it was their first home game, the girls were eager to defeat their opponent and show the renewed potential of our girls varsity softball team. Especially this year, there were a lot of expectations for the team, since some of the athletes were recruited to Kent.

For this home game, a group of Kent community members came to support their friends and to watch the first home game of the team. The game started off with Kent on the defense. Teagan Graham ’21, the new ace pitcher of the team, demonstrated her flawless pitching skills at the beginning, putting Kent’s strength on show to our opponent Cheshire Academy.

As the game continued, despite Cheshire Academy’s sturdy attacks, the girls gave some great performances on the field. Morgan Lee ’22 showed several outstanding defensive moves, Jana Safy ’21 made multiple solid hits, and Gia Orsino ’19 got a stellar hit but it, unfortunately, flew out of bounds.

Despite our girls’ best and unflagging efforts, Kent went through some vicissitudes due to Cheshire Academy’s hard-hitting plays. Jessica Greene ’21 says, “We were faced with a much faster pitcher than most of the girls in our team were used to.” However, she also comments, “Some of our new girls, like Juliette Roy ’21, made some memorable hits,” and reflects, “We tried our best to keep good energy on the bench. And overall, I think it became an opportunity for us to realize our mistakes and holes.”

The girls lost to Cheshire Academy by 2-6, but still proved that they have unlimited potential and more to expect.

Graham, after the game, expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “Even though the weather was very rough today, I would say it was my one of the best learning experience so far since it was one of my best performance so far in my life.” Her teammate, Jessica Greene ’21, the shortstop of the team, commented on Teagan’s pitching skills, “First off Teagan’s pitching was very very good, and it kept us in the game as much as possible.”

Head coach of the team, Daniel Zurolo, commented on his team’s performance after the game by explaining, “When we had our Spring trip to Florida, we played outstandingly; the warm weather there made our girls feel very good and confident.”

He continued, “When we come back to campus, sometimes it could just feel like almost starting over again because it is hard to all the sudden just pick up where you left off from Florida. So we took a step or two backward and now we are trying to recapture the positive things that we gained from Florida which will allow us to perform better for our next game.”