The Oak Park girls’ lacrosse team has played a fantastic season, sporting a 13-3 record.

With only a varsity team, the Oak Park “Lady Lax” players have had to work harder than other schools to ensure their Maxpreps standing as eighth in the state and 41st in the nation. The girls play independently, meaning that they can schedule games with any league, such as the Coastal Canyon League or the Camino League.

The team utilizes this advantage, scheduling games against powerhouse teams like Mira Costa (12-7).

“Mira Costa was most competitive my freshman year, when we beat them in the playoffs. Since then, I know they have graduated a lot of key players, so this year the game was not as close,” junior and lacrosse team member Lauren Duerfeldt said.

The team has played successfully for the last three years, with an overall record of 47 wins, 13 losses and one tie.

In addition, the girls’ lacrosse ranks No. 1 in Ventura County according to the Ventura County Star, No. 3 in LaxPower’s Southern Section and No. 4 in Southern California according to USA Today.

“Even though we’ve lost three games, they’ve all been to really tough teams outside the L.A. region,” Duerfeldt said. “We’ve really stepped up our game this year…I think the fact that we are competitive with Orange County teams is really great. Usually there’s this whole idea that O.C. teams are so much better than Los Angeles teams, but I think we have proved that wrong this year.”

The team has a large number of juniors, which may be problematic for the team after the juniors graduate.

“Our top scorers are [juniors] Morgan Shorts, Julia Gilliam and Ania Brown. [Junior] Shane Costello is a key player all over the field because she can play defense and offense extremely well,” Duerfeldt said. “Our top defenders are [juniors] Lauren Welin, Emma Barrow and [senior] Brooke Smailes.”

However, Duerfeldt said she believes that the team can improve.

“We can always be better,” Duerfeldt said. “There will always be teams out there to challenge you, and my hopes for next year are that we show that we can hang with any team from any region, not just L.A. and O.C.”