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Revenge Tour Complete: STAB girls lacrosse beats Paul VI to win state title

A run to a state championship in it of itself is hard to top as a high school sports team. It’s what every team, from the beginning of the season, wants to ultimately do. 

 

Add in the chance to avenge not one, but two losses from earlier in the year, and it creates a story that is the stuff of legend.

 

The St. Anne’s Belfield girl’s lacrosse team had a chance to do just that on Saturday morning. Playing at 9 a.m. at Grover Park in Glen Allen to avoid an epic heat wave, the Saints locked horns with Paul VI from Chantilly with a chance to avenge a loss to the Panthers in late April. 

 

The Saints did just that, rolling to a decisive 11-6 victory to claim the VISAA Division I state championship for the first time since moving up to the division from Division II a little less than a decade ago.

 

Paul VI caught St. Anne’s at the worst time for the Panthers, as the Saints had rounded into playoff form in a big way. The Saints were 21-2 entering the clash, their only other loss coming to powerhouse Bishop Ireton 13-12 in overtime. STAB went on the road two days before and upended Bishop Ireton, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, in shocking fashion 11-7, completing the first half of its revenge tour. 

 

“You can’t write a better story.” St. Anne’s head coach Carrington King said. “You’ve got two in season losses and in the last two games and you get to avenge those. I’m just proud of the girls, they’ve worked really hard this year.” 

 

The Saints wasted little time getting the offense going. Lellie King scored three minutes into the game and Mia Maurer quickly added another to set the tone early. The Panthers struck back but Lee Kestner expertly scored after running a set that capitalized on a Paul VI penalty. The Saints ran their sets to near perfection all afternoon. Three minutes later, Kestner scored again forcing a Panthers timeout. 

 

Paul VI scored to cut it back to 4-2, but a slew of goals quickly followed from the Saints who surged back to a 7-2 lead. The Panthers scored back to back at the end of the first half, but Raleigh Forester scored off of a huge rebound that bounced off the crossbar of the goal to put the Saints up 8-4 at the half and halt the Panthers momentum. 

 

“We really wanted to focus on us.” King said. “A lot better movement off the ball. I really felt like we’ve grown, we’re a different team than that game.”

 

The Saints seemed like a different team indeed, surpassing their six goal mark that they scored in the entire first game against Paul VI total in the first half. 

 

The second half saw more of the same. St. Anne’s continued to control the tempo of the game, running their sets well while also taking up time on the clock, letting their possessions play out. Martha Oakey and Addi Foster added two more goals to put some more distance between them and the Panthers. Paul VI cut it back to five at 10-5 with 16:03 left, but there wasn’t another goal until 3:16 left in the game.

 

After the Panthers scored again, Tilly Matheson added the finishing touches with 1:33 left and the Saints faithful stormed the field as the final buzzer sounded. 

 

Lellie King led the Saints offense with three goals. Lee Kestner added two more to help give the Saints its first state title since 2011 when they played in Division II. St. Anne’s finishes with an impressive 22-2 record, as well as a state title and that epic revenge tour in its final two games.

 

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