**The Girls Lax Team defeated the Class 5A Riverside Rams 16-13. (Photo: FCCPS Photo/William Gale)**

With the conclusion of basketball season at Meridian High School, that means it’s time for the Spring season to get started, with sports for the next three months including soccer, lacrosse, tennis, baseball, and softball.

The boys’ soccer team headlines this group as they look to defend their 2023 State Championship, and their opening week included a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to compete in tournament play.

It was a bit of a slow start, though, as the boys lost 1-0 at Osbourn Park on Tuesday before going 1-2 against some very stiff competition across state lines, beating Hewitt-Trussville 2-0 on Thursday before falling 3-1 to Hardin Valley on Friday and then 2-0 to Brentwood on Saturday. The early season contests will leave the Mustang’s well-tested. They return to Falls Church for their first home game of the year against Briar Woods Today.

**The Mustangs Girls Soccer team Beat Seton HS in their home opener Friday night. (Photo: FCCPS Photo/Art Binkowski)**

Meanwhile girls soccer opened their season with a 3-2 loss at Annandale on Tuesday before rebounding to beat Seton 5-0 on Friday at home. They’ll host Osbourn Park this Tuesday as they look to improve to 2-1 on the yea. Girls soccer is not the only female squad off to a strong start, as the lacrosse team earned a pair of wins — scoring exactly 16 goals each time, in fact, as they beat Lightridge 16-9 on Tuesday and then Riverside 16-13 the following Monday, both at home. The boys’ lacrosse team also won 14-5 at Seton on Tuesday.

The baseball team saw itself competing in tournament play in addition to boys’ soccer, and after falling 3-1 in their opener at home to Kettle Run on Tuesday, they rebounded with a 16-5 win against Hylton on Saturday at Washington-Liberty, though they also fell 3-0 to the host school that same day. They’ll have a full week’s worth of rest before playing at Potomac this coming Saturday.

Softball has been off to a busy start with four games already in the books. Unfortunately they were all losses (12-5 to Kettle Run at home on last Tuesday, 3-2 at Wakefield lastThursday, 6-5 against Washington-Liberty on Friday, and then 2-1 at Oakton on Monday), but this is a team that’s started slow before and bounced back nicely later on in the year.

Finally, girls’ tennis was defeated 2-7 in its only matchup of the year thus far against Independence on Tuesday, and they will not be in action again until the calendar turns to April.