Despite having 12 freshmen on its roster, the Princeton Day School girls’ lacrosse team came roaring out of the gate this season.

The youthful Panthers rolled to wins in its first three games, topping Sewickley Academy (Pa.) 15-6, WW/P-S 14-2, and Shipley School (Pa.) 18-7.

But last week, PDS hit some roadblocks, gaining some hard-earned learning experiences.

Against visiting Hill School (Pa.) on Wednesday, the Panthers fell behind 10-3 by halftime in a driving rainstorm. Showing some grit, PDS outscored Hill 8-3 in the second half but the rally came up short in a 13-11 loss.

Two days later, the Panthers built on that strong finish against Hill, taking a 5-0 lead against visiting Hun and taking a 7-4 advantage into halftime. PDS extended its cushion to 9-5 but then faltered as Hun rallied to take a 12-10 lead.

The Panthers rebounded to score the last two goals in regulation to force overtime and then took a 13-12 lead only to surrender two goals in the last 37.9 seconds of OT to lose 14-13.

PDS head coach Jill Thomas acknowledged that her squad wasn’t sharp enough with the ball in the loss to Hun.

“We just had too many turnovers,” said Thomas. “We played hard but it comes down to who has got it at the end. Kudos to Hun, they came to play.”

The Panthers also showed their youth in squandering the lead against the Raiders.

“We are young and we are going to have growing pains,” said Thomas, who got three goals and one assist from freshman Madison Mundenar in the loss to Hun with sophomore Morgan Mills chipping in five goals and sophomore Hannah Bunce adding three. “Hopefully we learn from it and grow up a little bit and go from here.”

Thomas, for her part, believes the squad can grow into something special this spring.

“We just need to keep getting better,” said Thomas, whose team hosts Lawrenceville on April 17 before playing at Pennington on April 20. “I am always optimistic. We’ll be alright.”