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A remarkable season came to an end for the Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team with a 12-8 loss to Western Albemarle in the Class 4 state championship game on Saturday afternoon at Charlottesville High School.
The Wildcats (17-2), the Region 4D champions for the fourth consecutive year, saw their 16-game winning streak come to an end, as the Warriors (20-0), the Region 4B champions, completed the season undefeated and won their second consecutive state title.
It was the fourth year in a row that the Wildcats’ season ended with a loss to Western, which defeated RC in the state semifinals the last three years. Saturday’s contest was RC’s first state title game appearance since the Virginia High School League began sponsoring lacrosse in 2006. The Warriors have consistently defeated the Wildcats over the last four years, and they’re the only team that has beaten RC during that time. Last year, Western beat RC 16-10 in the state semifinals, and the Warriors followed that up with a 15-7 home win over the Wildcats on March 19. Saturday’s loss was RC’s closest loss against WA since the state semifinals two years ago, when the Warriors fended off an RC comeback to win 12-11.
On Saturday, RC got off to a strong start, taking a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, with Halina Homiak, Lola Mulitalo and Anna Nye each scoring a goal. Just before the end of the first quarter, Western’s Taylor Florin scored to cut RC’s lead to 3-1.
Just 46 seconds into the second quarter, Maddie Dahl scored on an assist from Homiak to extend RC’s lead to 4-1, but the Warriors used their speed and strong passes to score six unanswered goals before halftime. Anna Alhusen scored four of those goals, and Western led 7-4 at the break.
The Warriors stayed ahead in the third quarter, going up 9-6, before the Wildcats got a goal from Mulitalo and Nye, cutting WA’s lead to 9-8. The Warriors responded with a goal each from Reeve Goldstein and Alhusen to go up 11-8 at the end of the third quarter.
About a minute into the fourth quarter, Maggie Craytor scored from the free position to extend WA’s lead to 12-8. For most of the rest of the quarter, the Warriors took time passing the ball to hold onto the lead.
Alhusen led WA with five goals, while Florin and Genevieve Hathaway each scored two goals.
Scoring two goals each and dishing out one assist apiece for the Wildcats were Dahl, Homiak, Mulitalo and Nye.
Starting goalie Emily Humphreys made five saves in goal for RC, and backup goalie Alyssa Hunter made one save. For WA, Maizey McCarthy made four saves.
The Wildcats will miss their six seniors: Ciara Staton, Hallie Darmante, Nala Shearer, Maddie Dahl, Libba Erskine and Halina Homiak.
For the full stories and photos from this week’s action, with comments from RC head coach Susan Nye and players, please see our June 12 newspaper.
