Kenston Forest School’s junior varsity (JV) girls basketball team has become battle-tested to start the 2018-19 season, taking on opponents outside the Virginia Colonial Conference (VCC) and coming away with a 3-2 record.

The Lady Kavaliers began by visiting Park View High School in South Hill on Nov. 19 and recording a 42-35 victory.

On Nov. 27, Kenston Forest lost 38-18 to host Isle of Wight Academy, a school Lady Kavs Head Coach Ben Green noted is always tough.

“That school’s three times bigger than we are,” he said.

The Lady Kavaliers hosted an outstanding Collegiate School squad Nov. 30 and ended up falling 47-23. Green said the Richmond-based Lady Cougars could have played well against Kenston Forest’s varsity team.

In their final games prior to the holiday vacation, the JV Lady Kavs defeated visiting Fuqua School 31-9 on Dec. 4 and topped visiting Virginia Episcopal School (VES) 36-13 on Dec. 5.

“The VES game, it was such a balanced attack — all the girls scored except one, so just a great ballgame,” Green said. “It’s a good little team we played. I don’t know why we have such success with them, because we beat them 61-15 last year in Lynchburg. I really don’t know how to describe it, but all of the girls contributed …”

Kenston Forest led 17-3 at halftime.

In the Fuqua game, the Lady Falcons are struggling this season, “and my kids played well. We had another balanced attack; everybody but two scored. I’m a firm believer of playing everybody.”

When the opportunity presents itself, Green likes to rotate in all of his players all four quarters.

“And I see the benefit of it as the season progresses,” he said.

The Lady Kavs demonstrated remarkable unselfishness in a recent game when it came to playing time.

“This group that has come up loves to play together,” Green said. “and it was an interesting discussion with the team, because I said, ‘OK, that gives us 11 kids. In a 28-minute ballgame, that’s going to take some playing time away from all of y’all,’ and all of them said, ‘Well that’s fine. We just want to play together.’”

Green alluded to losing some key players from last year’s JV squad, but he emphasized that his team remains talented this year, led by sophomore guard Mya Mahaney and freshman Gracie Gunn, who he said is close to six feet tall.

The team is comprised of two sophomores, four freshmen, one eighth-grader and two seventh-graders.