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Wednesday, May 24 -- The Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team advanced to the Region 4D championship and qualified for the Class 4 state tournament with a 17-6 victory over Cave Spring in the regional semifinals in Buena Vista.
Lola Mulitalo notched six goals as the top-seeded Wildcats (14-1) eliminated the fourth-seeded Knights (11-4). Nala Shearer tallied four goals and three assists for RC, while McKenzie Hines also scored four goals and Maddie Dahl recorded two goals and three helpers.
Morgan Allardi, Lilly Swanson and Cassidy Egle scored two goals apiece for Cave.
Both offenses started slowly, and the game was tied at 1-1 after 16 minutes. But the Wildcats reeled off a 6-1 run in the final 8:59 of the first half, getting two goals and two assists from Shearer during that stretch as they assumed a 7-2 halftime lead.
RC would go on to score seven of the first eight goals in the second period, pushing out to an insurmountable 14-3 margin on Shearer's fourth goal with 9:54 to go.
Rachel Hines made six saves in goal for the Wildcats, who held a narrow 19-14 edge in shots. The Knights had a 15-9 advantage on the draw circle -- including a 12-2 mark in the second half -- led by six draw controls on the night from Egle and four apiece from Allardi and Swanson.
The Wildcats' state tournament appearance will be their third in a row. RC has fallen to Western Albemarle in the Class 4 semifinals in each of the past two seasons.
RC will take on third-seeded Salem in Friday's regional championship game, which will be held at The Fields at Southern Virginia University. Opening draw is tentatively slated for 6 p.m.
