On Tuesday night, the Francis Howell Vikings defeated the Spartans 11-2 at home. The loss comes after a 6-2 road win against the Lutheran SC Cougars, which had previously ended a two-game losing skid. Following the loss to Howell, the Spartans are now 4-11 and are last in the GAC South standings behind the 5-8 Timberland Wolves.

The Spartans have not lost confidence however. In fact, according to several players, they seem to be on track to get back to winning ways.

“Winning the game against Lutheran was huge in boosting our confidence,” said sophomore Lindsey Powell. “With Howell, I think it was just a learning curve. It just gives us stuff to work on for West next game.”

According to sophomore Lizzy Orf, the key to turning their record into a winning one is by learning to work together as a team.

“We haven’t been working as a team; we’ve been working as individuals,” said Orf. “We’re really working hard to get that right.”

Part of the Spartans’ attempts to correct this problem has led to two natural leaders to step out.

“We have two players, Kaitlyn Chadwick and Meagan Day, who really have taken the reigns recently. They’re really great leaders and with them, we feel like we can win any game,” said sophomore Avery Davis.

With eight games remaining in the regular season, the Spartans are nine games back of both Troy and Fort Zumwalt West, rendering winning the conference impossible.

A winning season, however, is not out of reach by any stretch of the imagination, however, it will be difficult. In order to get back to .500, the Spartans must win seven of their last eight games. The advantage to this is that 5 of their upcoming games are at home.

If they can pull off a 12-11 record by winning their remaining games, the Spartans will come within one win of last years team, even in the wake of the absence of last year’s star players including Kaylee Sheridan, Alyssa Mathis, and Sarah Kabacinski. This would be a huge achievement for the Spartans, who currently have 8 freshmen and sophomores on their 16 girl roster.

The Spartans will look for redemption today as they go on the road to rematch against rival Francis Howell.