Maybe it looks like Covenant girls lacrosse’s young roster is arriving ahead of schedule, but check in with the newly-minted Blue Ridge Conference player of the year Delaney Poindexter and she’ll let you know that this is the product of some serious work and done some serious bonding.
“It has taken us a lot of time to get here and I’m just so excited to share it with such a special group of girls,” Poindexter said. “These girls are like my family.”
The latest product of all that hard work was Covenant’s 16-6 victory over Virginia Episcopal School in the BRC title game Saturday, with the Eagles jumping out to an early lead before pulling away in the second half behind six goals and two assists from Kerrigan Poindexter and another five goals and one assist from Delaney Poindexter.
The Eagles have a ton of different offensive weapons and seven different Eagles scored against the Bishops, with several striking early while Covenant built a 9-4 lead. There’s clearly a flow and continuity between those offensive players that is helping the Eagles work efficiently, scoring those 16 goals on just 20 shots.
“You can definitely tell that our girls play other sports together,” said Covenant coach Colleen Norair. “Yes we have two sisters but we also have Margaret Ann, Lina, Peyton, other girls who are seeing them and letting them do the work and that comes from being an unselfish team.”
That offensive output held up because the defense and goalie Katy Varaksa made sure it did. Varaksa made seven saves and also made her impact felt with several interceptions on errant VES passes across the crease. Late in the second half, she snuffed out any hopes of a late VES rally with a stonewalling of a couple of point blank shots. The save sequence almost immediately led to a counter attack and another Covenant goal.
“She’s amazing, she’s our anchor on defense, we wouldn’t be where we are without Katy V and our defensive line, we are so thankful and she’s going to take us all the way to states,” said Delaney Poindexter.
Varaksa and that defense may end up being the difference-maker in this week’s state tournament. Most teams that are in the VISAA D2 field can score, so it’ll likely come down to who can make stops and Covenant is more than capable.
“A lot of what we talk about is how we can defend as a team and once we get on the field that really shows,” Norair said.
The Eagles find out their tournament matchup Sunday but as the No. 1-ranked squad in Division II they’ll almost surely get a chance to host Tuesday in the state quarterfinals.
