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A rematch of last year’s Class 4 girls lacrosse state semifinals certainly lived up to its billing.
Taylor Florin scored the gamewinning goal with 26 seconds left in the first overtime period to lift Western Albemarle to a 9-8 victory over Rockbridge County High School in Lexington last Wednesday – but only after the Wildcats had rallied back from a 7-3 halftime deficit, tying the game on a frenetic sequence at the end of regulation.
RC (1-1) had a free-position look with 33 seconds left in the second half, but the Warriors (4-0) forced a turnover before a potential shot. However, the ’Cats double-teamed Western goalkeeper Maizey Mc-Carthy behind the cage, and McKenzie Hines gained possession back and fed Lily Youngman for a onetime shot that tied the score at 8-8 with 9.4 seconds remaining.
The Wildcats, who held a commanding 16-3 edge on the draw circle, won the opening draw of overtime. But an RC turnover with just over a minute to play in the 3-minute period gave possession back to Western, and Florin cashed in for the decisive goal.
The stinging loss for the Wildcats was eerily similar to the two teams’ clash in the 2022 state semifinals, also played in Lexington. In last June’s postseason matchup, the ’Cats fought back from five goals down to tie the game late, only to see the Warriors win 12-11 in the waning moments. In 2021, Western beat RC 17-7 in the state semifinals in Crozet.
McKenzie Hines finished with three goals and one assist for RC in Wednesday’s meeting, while Youngman also scored three goals and Nala Shearer notched two markers. Rachel Hines made five of her seven saves in the second half, limiting the Warriors to one goal in the period.
Annie Alhusen paced Western with three goals, and Reeve Goldstein tallied two goals and one assist.
A lthough the ’Cats came up short in the extra session, RC head coach Susan Nye was pleased with her team’s second-half performance.
“We started communicating a lot more on defense and picking up cutters,” Nye said. “We played with a lot more intensity. I think the fight was there.”
Early goals from Katie Alhusen and Goldstein put Western up 2-0. McKenzie Hines scored twice in a 13-second span to tie the game at 2-2 with 16:54 remaining in the first half, and Youngman’s first goal gave RC a 3-2 lead at the 15:06 mark.
It would prove to be the Wildcats’ only advantage of the game. The Warriors closed the first half on a 5-0 run, getting two goals from Annie Alhusen and one apiece from Maggie Craytor, Genevieve Hathaway and Goldstein to go into the break ahead 7-3.
RC is still putting the pieces together on attack, particularly after the graduation of all-state performers Kendall Nye and Susanne Mayock-Bradley on that end of the field. The growing pains may have been apparent in the first half, especially against another elite defensive team.
“We’ve got a couple of months to get the smoothness and the momentum and the pace of our offense clicking at a reasonable rate,” Nye said.
But things started to click more for the Wildcats after halftime. Youngman’s goal with 22:42 to play got the rally started, and Shearer scored back-to-back goals – both assisted by Maddie Dahl from the 8-meter arc – to make it 7-6 with 15:25 remaining.
Annie Alhusen answered for the Warriors with 9:24 to go, and McKenzie Hines scored with 7:43 left to again pull RC within one. Western’s stall ate away a good chunk of the remaining time, but a Warrior turnover with just over 90 seconds left set the stage for a wild finish to the second period.
Western held a narrow 20-17 advantage in shots, and the Warriors won the turnover battle 16-9. That helped to offset RC’s dominance on the draw circle, which was spearheaded by eight draw controls from McKenzie Hines and six for Dahl.
That big advantage in the midfield was no accident for the Wildcats.
“The draw is a science,” Nye said. “It’s all about physics and angles and pressure. It’s an art unto itself, but we spend a lot of time in practice just working on where’s the ball going, and helping those people on the circle to be more aggressive.”
And even though RC suffered another last-second loss to Western, Nye knows that the Wildcats can only benefit from playing a highlevel contest so early in the year.
“Honestly, I’m very glad that we had a game like this in March, and that it’s always something to look back to for the rest of the season,” the RC coach said.
The Wildcats will return to action at Monticello on Monday, April 17, with the varsity game only, scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
