St. Anne’s-Belfield girls lacrosse played awfully well to knock off St. Catherine’s in the VISAA D1 state quarterfinals and that momentum carried over to STAB’s clash with St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes in the early going of Friday’s state semifinals.
But SSSA is a different animal, a buzzsaw with a reported 17 college commitments or signees — one of the top-five teams in the country.
STAB’s roster that’s packed with underclassmen didn’t back down from the challenge and trailed by just five at the break. But SSSA eventually pulled away for an 18-7 win over the Saints, ending an impressive first campaign under first-year coach Audrey Schreck.
“I think we gave them a really good showing, especially in that first half,” Schreck said. “We held their high octane offense to eight goals in the first half, that’s phenomenal. We gave them a really good fight.”
The final four appearance was the first appearance by the Saints in the final four since 2016 and the first state tournament appearance of any kind for STAB since 2017.
STAB went nip-and-tuck with SSSA in the opening minutes, knotting the game at 2-2 on a Raleigh Foster goal. But SSSA ripped off six-straight goals to take an 8-2 lead before Ella Reidienhour stopped the bleeding late in the first half to cut the SSSA lead to just five goals at the break.
The Saints executed well coming out of the half too and ran a solid offensive set with several quick flips that eventually led to a Mia Maurer finish that cut the SSSA lead to 8-4. SSSA was strong on the draw though and that was as close as STAB would get, with SSSA stretching the lead to 11-4 before Lellie King and Martha Oakey scored back-to-back goals to cut it to 11-6. That’s when SSSA went on the decisive run, scoring seven straight to put away STAB.
“Our offense held their own and we moved the ball well — I’m really proud of this young team for holding up against a really good offense,” Schreck said.
Vanderbilt-bound senior Cate Bradley led the SSSA attack with three goals and three assists while Stanford signee Annabel Frist had a hat trick and an assist. Trinity College Brooke Kurtz had two goals and three assists. Wake Forest soccer signee Olivia Duvall had a hat trick too. Rhodes-bound keeper Olivia Wood had four saves.
Martha Oakey scored twice and pulled in four draw controls to lead the Saints in both categories. Maurer had a goal and an assist while Addi Foster and Tilley Matheson also had goals in addition to King, Reidenhour and Raleigh Foster.
Sophomore keeper Kelsey Perriello managed four saves against the SSSA onslaught including a couple of tough ones from point blank range.
The Saints graduate just a single senior, Katherine Perriello. The rest of the roster is slated to return in 2022, including the impressive group of eighth graders, freshmen and sophomores that includes the Fosters, King, Maurer and Oakey.
“Being in this situation and finding this experience is going to be huge for the program as a whole,” Schreck said. “It’s awesome to see this young group experience such an awesome opportunity at such a young age. That’ll just keep propelling this program forward for the next couple of years.”
SSSA faces Collegiate, who beat Bishop Ireton in the other semifinal in a sudden victory overtime situation Saturday in the VISAA Division I championship.
