Most years, St. Anne’s-Belfield and Collegiate meet up in the LIS championship game. But with the Saints rebuilding, the seemingly annual LIS tournament clash with these two came a round early. The Cougars had to endure a bit of a tough start in the first half but with a 5-1 run to open the second, the hosts held on for a 17-11 win.
“We were just really excited to come out and play this game,” said Collegiate coach Annie Richards. “We focused our gameplan on the connections, our passes and playing strong defense. We’re just happy to have come out and played a great game.”
St. Anne’s drew first blood on a goal from Emily Carden and five minutes into the game, it was 2-2. But when Gwen Sinnott made it 3-2 for Collegiate with 16:52 left in the first, the Cougars took the lead and then began stretching it out. Sitton poured in three first half goals and as such, with 10:04 until the break, Collegiate was sitting on a 6-2 lead.
“The past two years we’ve lost to them in the LIS tournament so this meant a lot to us, especially the upperclassmen,” Sitton said. “It’s always a fight with STAB, they’re always tough competition so we just knew we had to come out hard. Tournament time you have to because any team can win.”
The Cougars went into the second half with a 10-5 lead and with a 5-1 start that featured two goals a piece from Maggie Bostain and Ginx Williams. That secured a 15-6 lead with 18:08. And while St. Anne’s outscored Collegiate 5-2 for the remainder of the game, there was not enough time to undo the damage from the beginning of the second.
“They’re more experienced than we are but there were some times where we played great defense, had great transitions,” said STAB coach Mary Blake. “We haven’t quite put it together for 50 minutes. We’re right on the edge. But I’ll be honest, I never thought we were out of the game. I really thought that we had the chances to get ourselves out of this.”
On the day, Sinnott finished with six points, three goals and three assists. Jordan Marcus had three goals and two assists. Harper Zaun finished with a goal and four assists. Williams finished with two goals and an assist.
For STAB, Carden led the way with her four-goal game. McKenzie Maurer had two goals.
The Cougars face St. Catherine’s in the LIS championship. STAB awaits its playoff fate. It currently sits eighth, in the final playoff spot in the latest VISAA Division 1 poll with that tournament slated to start next week.
“We’ve been sixth and eighth twice in the four polls so unless somebody does something else in some other league, I’d think we’d stay at eight,” Blake said. “Now we just have to wait and see.”
