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GREENSBORO — The Page girls lacrosse team gets its third crack this season at Western Guilford in a quarterfinal of the NCHSAA playoffs tonight, but the Pirates' losing streak to the Hornets goes back further, beyond Page head coach Hank Hiser's recall.

"Ten, 12, 14 games?" he said. "Winning breeds winning, and losing breeds losing."

More than any X's or O's, tonight's most important task for Hiser and the Pirates is believing they're on the same level as a program for which they have the utmost respect. Western, led by head coach Becki Haislip, is 15-0, won its conference for a fifth straight year and is ranked sixth in the state by laxpower.com.

"It becomes a mindset," Hiser said, "and if you buy into it, and you walk onto the field a good or great team, you know you're going to win. Playing the game is just something you have to do. To a large degree, that's how her players feel, and good for them.

"Conversely, we have to convince our girls that they put their pants on the same way, they work at it the same way. And our girls have worked pretty darn hard."

The Pirates had promise with 12 seniors returning from a 12-4 team, but they opened the season with a 7-6 loss to Northern Guilford and were then crushed by Western, 13-1.

Their turning point came a week later, a 17-4 win over Ragsdale that Hiser called the best performance he's seen in eight years with the team.

Page is 12-2 since its opening hiccups and is ranked 19th in the state.

"It showed how the game changed when they did all the various components like they were supposed to," Hiser said. "They realized they could be a whole lot better a whole lot easier."

Page goalkeeper Lauren Gilman, who will play for Greensboro College, is one of the best in the area, and she gets a ton of protection from senior defenders Caroline Byers, Emilie Barker and Courtney Gilliam. That unit, led by assistant coach and former Mars Hill goalie Brian Moleski, is giving up an average of fewer than seven goals per game, making it one of the 10 stingiest defenses in the state along with Western's unit.

"That defense is his baby," Hiser said of Moleski.

Byers and Gilliam are captains, along with midfielders Liddy Roer and Lindsey Hook, whose father, Billy, is the coaching director of the Triad Youth Lacrosse Association. Attacker Michelle Ingram, who will play for Tennessee Wesleyan, is flanked by Taylor Dodgin and Sara Kronenfeld.

All nine of those players are seniors, and Hiser said they've reached that point of foreseeing each other's moves that's made his job "more observation than teaching" this season.

The winner of tonight's game will face 11th-ranked Charlotte Myers Park or fourth-ranked Charlotte Catholic in a semifinal next week, with the final to be played May 15 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

But first Page must do what no one else has done this season — slay the county's Goliath.

"It's a high mountain to climb," Hiser said. "I'm more than happy to try and climb it, but it's taking awhile."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com