Garden Spot and Ephrata battled in a close Lancaster-Lebanon League girls' lacrosse match on Thursday, April 1, in New Holland.

Despite their three-goal surge in the second half, the Garden Spot Spartans came up short in a 9-5 final.

With the loss, the Spartans fell to 1-3 on the year (0-2 league). The match was close at halftime with the Mountaineers holding a 4-2 lead.

Garden Spot's offense was led by Emma Gruber, who recorded a hat trick. The other two scores came courtesy of Brielle Moyer, who also notched an assist, and Gwen Varley. Diana Redcay also dished out an assist as the Spartans compiled 12 shots on goal.

In Spots' goal, Lexi Horning faced 20 shots and made 11 saves.

The next two matches were feast or famine for the Spartans, who improved to 2-4 with the split of their matches on Monday and Wednesday.

Moyer scored the single goal in a 20-1 loss to Twin Valley on Monday.

In the non-league contest, Horning and Olivia Scarle split time in goal with Horning grabbing two saves and Scarle recording seven.

The Spartans headed to Daniel Boone for another non-league contest on Wednesday, coming away with an impressive 16-6 victory.

The Spartans out-shot the Boone attack 23-8 with Scarle recording the victory in goal.

Moyer, Varley and Gruber each poured in four goals while Emily Ferris scored two times. Redcay and Ashton Gonzalez each netted one goal and Jasmine Vilay contributed with one assist.

VOLLEYBALL

In a Section Two showdown, the Garden Spot boys' volleyball team blanked Ephrata on the road on Thursday evening, April 1.

The first two sets ended with nearly identical scores as the Spartans (4-0, 2-0 league) peaked at 25-16 and 25-17 before sweeping the Mountaineers 25-19.

Tyler Martin and Derrick Lambert each had a solid match. Martin served up five aces and led the way in digs with 19 while Lambert racked up 10 kills. Jordan Martin distributed 30 assists. Joseph Sharp, Griffin Witmer and Jack McCarty each registered one block.

In a non-league match on Monday, April 5, the Spartans finished close in two of the three sets, but lost to Palmyra 3-0. They gave the visiting Cougars a tough fight in the first set before falling short 25-23. The third set was also close at 25-21.

Lambert had a team-high six kills. Tyler Martin and Chandler Xiong each served two aces while Martin added nine digs and led the team with 17 assists. He also tied Witmer in blocks with three.

TENNIS

The Spartans suffered a 7-0 loss at Cocalico on Tuesday, falling to 0-3 in the L-L League (1-6 overall).

The Eagles won each of the singles matches in straight sets. In the number three singles, Dylan Esbenshade hung tough against Alex Neustadter in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat.

Cole King and Ani Kukarni faced Alex and Nicholas Neustadter at number three doubles with the Cocalico brothers winning 8-2.

SOFTBALL

Sometimes good hitting becomes "infectious" as the sports cliche goes and helps boost a team's confidence.

That example has been set for Garden Spot's softball team this year as the Spartans have shown in their three victories thus far.

"Allie King, who leads off, and Sydni King are at the top of the lineup," explained Kimberly King, the Spartans head coach. "It brings everybody up when they see the other girls hitting the ball hard. It brings up the confidence level. It helps the attitude at the plate. I've seen it this year."

That attitude helped Garden Spot with a solid offensive output in a 12-2 victory over Octorara on Monday, April 5.

"We had a little bit of a slow start, but scored two runs in the first inning," King said. "We started playing much better, scoring two more in the third inning - four in the fourth and four more to end the game early. It was nice to end the game in five innings with all the games on our schedule back-to-back."

King had Allie King pitching for the first time. The senior, who is typically an infielder, came through with a win.

"It was nice having someone else pitching with three games in a row this week," King said, referring to resting Amelia Mercado for a day. "It was great to have Allie get a win in her first game pitching.

"She walked her first two batters and that was all," added the coach.

Sydni King had two hits and four runs batted in. Allie King also had a pair of hits. Brittney Esh added a hit as did junior Emma Royle.

The Spartans came up short against Governor Mifflin on Tuesday in a 4-2 final.

"All week we've had good pitching and good defense," King said. "We were pretty solid. It was just one of those games where things did not go our way - lucky hits by the other team or great catches by them when we hit the ball hard.

"All week we have been hitting the ball hard - even if they were being caught," King emphasized.

The Spartans bounced right back with a 4-2 Section Three win over Elco on Wednesday at home.

The game was scoreless in the fourth inning, but the Raiders manufactured a run. The Spartans tied it and Elco again took the lead, taking a 2-1 edge into the bottom of the sixth.

"We got a couple of girls on and Allie King hit a three-run home run for the game-winning runs," King explained.

The victory improved the Spartans record to 3-3 on the year.

BOYS LACROSSE

Garden Spot played host to Twin Valley in a Monday evening non-league boys' lacrosse match. The Spartans' scoring trio of Zane Fisher, Gavyn Naranjo, and Logan Lesley each put up two goals. But Twin Valley's Ryan Scheivert scored six times as the Raiders went on to win 15-6.

Goalie Gabriel Myer made 16 saves but Garden Spot fell to 0-4 on the year.

In an L-L League April 1 match at Ephrata, the Spartans were on the losing end of a 17-4 final. The Mountaineers' Brock Boyer scored six times. Naranjo and Lesley scored twice each for the Spartans.