Garden Spot outscored Conestoga Christian 22-16 Monday afternoon in a non-league girls' lacrosse match. The Spartans raised their record to 3-10 on the year.

Though the final result indicated a high-scoring game with plenty of back-and-forth scoring, Garden Spot built a 15-5 lead by halftime.

Emily Ferris had a career game, scoring eight goals and also contributing an assist. Gwen Varley, one of the team's leading scorers, finished with seven goals while Brielle Moyer scored five goals and assisted twice. Sophomore Sophia Ashcroft and freshman Cecilia Stoltzfus each netted one goal.

Spot out-shot Christian 27-24. Jaden Miller (5 saves) and Olivia Scarle (3 saves) made the key plays in front of the Spartans' net.

The Spartans tallied 10 goals the following day, April 25, in a tough Lancaster-Lebanon League loss at Cocalico. The Eagles outscored the Spartans 11-4 in the second half, defeating Garden Spot 25-10.

Coming off her seven-goal performance 24 hours earlier, Varley pelted the Cocalico net with nine goals. Moyer scored one.

BOYS' VOLLEYBALL

The Spartans extended their winning streak to three matches, topping Ephrata in a key Section Two match on Tuesday, April 25. The 3-0 victory at Garden Spot improved the Spartans' record to 7-1 on the year.

Tanner Laukhuff poured in 12 kills and served up two aces as Spot topped the Mounts 25-18, 25-23 and 25-23.

Providing on-court precision with 15 assists was Keegan Redcay. Nicholas Smucker and Rowan Sensenig each registered three blocks while Josh Martin and Laukhuff each added two aces.

Justin Minger came through with seven digs.

On Monday night, the Spartans took care of non-league opponent Schuylkill Valley 3-0, posting 25-21, 25-15, and 25-22 set scores.

Laukhuff poured in 20 kills in this victory while Redcay provided the passing - 34 assists.

Smucker had six blocks and Brennan Esh led the team in aces - two. He also had a dig.

The first victory in the win streak was a 3-0 triumph over Lancaster Mennonite on Thursday, April 20. Each of Garden Spot's winning sets over the visiting Blazers was by the identical score of 25-20.

Laukhuff, who drilled 16 kills, Josh Martin, Dylan Zeiset and Ezra Hubik each had one ace. Minger led the team in digs with six while Redcay came through with 22 assists.

It was Smucker with four blocks and Ari Morales-Aguillar with 12 assists also contributing to the victory.

TRACK

What are the odds that both the Solanco boys' and girls' teams would match up against the Garden Spot squads in a Section Two dual meet? What are the odds that the Solanco boys would win their contest 83-67 and the Solanco girls by a nearly identical margin of 85-65?

That was what happened on Monday as the Solanco boys improved to 4-1 on the year and the girls' team raised its record to 3-2. The Spartan boys fell to 1-3 and the girls' team to 2-2.

In the girls' meet, senior Melanie Esh finished second in the 1,600 and third in the 800.

Megan Hechler won the 300 hurdles and sophomore Elise Krock the 800.

Though the Spartans didn't earn first in the 400, Lauren Horning and Riley Arment took second and third, respectively.

Senior Angela Nuse took second in the long jump at 16-foot-3.25 as well as third in the 200.

Hechler's 4-10 high jump and Chloe Grady's 4-8 were the top two spots. Mikayla Mellinger's 32-6 and Grady's 32-2 were second and third in the triple jump while Valerie Martin claimed second in the pole vault at 9-0.

Spartan senior Zechariah Nagle was first in the boys' 300 hurdles and second in the high hurdles.

Gavin Reimers gave Spot a second-place finish in the 1,600. Ryan Kelch (400) and Trent Hoober (800) were also second-place finishers while freshman Andrew Pemberton, who won the 200, gave his team a third-place spot in the 100.

Gavin Kitch's 300 hurdles time was good for third. Josiah Smucker and Cole Humphreys took third in the 400 and 800 events, respectively. Humphreys was second in the 200.

In field events, Kaleb Zimmerman claimed yet another shot put win, going 48-11 for that top distance. Among the second-place finishes were Aiden Durante's triple jump of 40-2.75 and the 10-foot pole vault of Diego Portales. Sean Kelch (9-6) earned third. Durante also took a close third (19-8) in the long jump.

Landon Friedel earned third in the javelin (130-10) as well as the shot put (43-10.5).

BASEBALL

The Garden Spot baseball team was involved in three one-run games, winning two of the three in a six-day stretch.

On Wednesday, April 26, the Spartans edged the Eagles 5-4 at Cocalico - two days following a 7-6 defeat of Octorara at home. The one loss was to Donegal by an 8-7 count back on Friday, April 21.

The Spartans (6-8) scored all five of their runs at Cocalico in the top of the fourth inning. Connor Manning, a freshman, showed great poise as he came in to record the save with 1 1/3 innings, retiring all four batters he faced.

Manning earned the save for Madix Bracken, who only allowed two hits. But with four walks, the Eagles managed to chip away at the Spartans' lead.

The five-run rally was highlighted by lead-off man Caleb Zimmerman's two-run single. Caiden Murphy, Ryan Speers, who went 2-for-3 on the day, Kye Harting, Gabe Smeltz and Zimmerman each scored a run. Smeltz went 2-for-4 out of the number nine spot, helping to set the table for Zimmerman's RBI's.

The Spartans finally walked off the field against Octorara with a dramatic 11th-inning 7-6 win. The game stayed tied at 6-6 from the fifth inning on.

Speers was tabbed for the start and went five innings, which meant that another stellar relief performance was involved in this win. Zimmerman's relief work, however, went six innings - six scoreless frames in which he only gave up four hits and a walk.

Zimmerman also had three hits. He scored a run while Manning came through with two hits, including a double, and one RBI.

Speers, Harting (2-for-5) and Brackin each drove in a run as did Smeltz. Harting scored two runs.

Zimmerman slugged a home run and drove in four on his 2-for-4 game at Donegal. Karson Weaver also had a two-hit game as did Harting, who tripled and scored a run.

Murphy also drove in a run, going 2-for-3 with a double.

BOYS' LACROSSE

The Spartans lost a close 10-7 match at Ephrata on Friday, April 21. The Mountaineers, on a Parker Snow hat trick, and four goals by Trent Altemos survived the Spartans' attack.

Ayden Naranjo led the Spartan attack with a hat trick while Joseph Bernek produced a pair of goals.

Cooper Usner, and Logan Lessley each tallied one goal. Kane Leaman and Max Davis each dished out one assist.

Zack Belknap scored six times as part of a 61-shot attack for the Eagles on Tuesday, April 25. Cocalico topped Spot 23-4 in New Holland.

Garden Spot (7-5, 5-3 league) got 13 saves from goalie Cole Leaman.

Offensively, Naranjo, Berneck, Davis and Jared Patton scored for Garden Spot.

BOYS' TENNIS

Garden Spot wrapped up the regular season with Walter Churpin, Brandon Herman and Gavin Zook contributing to a 6-1 defeat of Octorara on Monday in non-league boys' tennis action. The Spartans finished the year 1-9.

Churpin teamed with Zook for an 8-1 defeat of Declan Lomboy and Daniel Keane in the number one doubles match. Brandon Herman, who would go on to win the number two singles 6-3, 6-2, paired up with Jude Kauffman at second doubles - an 8-3 Spartan win.

Andrew Herman (6-2, 6-2) won the number three singles. Zook battled his way to a team point at number four singles, winning 6-1, 4-6, 10-6.