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Four Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse players were named all-state this past Friday, following the Wildcats’ fourth consecutive Region 4D championship and first trip to the Class 4 state title game.
Sophomore attacker Lola Mulitalo, the Region 4D player of the year, and senior defender Libba Erskine were selected to the all-state first team. Making the all-state second team were freshman midfielder Anna Nye and senior attacker Nala Shearer.
Erksine and Shearer will both continue their athletic and academic careers at the collegiate level. Erksine is headed to Division II school Florida Southern College after signing to play for the women’s lacrosse team, while Shearer signed to play Division III volleyball for Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Shearer finished her high school career with more than 100 assists and more than 200 points, while Erskine was a defensive force throughout her career.
Mulitalo notched her 100th career point this season, and Nye proved herself a strong scorer, passer and draw control specialist in an impressive freshman year.
Under the direction of fifth-year head coach Susan Nye, the Wildcats went 17-2 this year, only losing to undefeated Western Albemarle (200) twice. RC lost 15-7 to Western Albemarle on March 19 in Crozet. The Wildcats went on to win 16 consecutive games before falling again to the Warriors 12-8 in the Class 4 state championship game on June 8 in Charlottesville. It was the second consecutive state championship for Western, which had knocked the Wildcats out in the state semifinals the three previous years.
In this year’s state semifinals, which took place at RC on June 4, the Wildcats defeated Hanover 11-7. The season-ending loss to Western was the Wildcats’ first appearance in the state championship game since the Virginia High School League began sponsoring lacrosse in 2006.
