Covenant’s girls lacrosse team found out Friday night that Trinity-Meadow View just isn’t your typical eighth seed in the VISAA Division II girls soccer tournament as the Tempest eliminated the Eagles with a 3-1 win in Richmond.
The Tempest, a 2010 Division II finalist, beat St. Anne’s-Belfield 3-2 in the regular season, overcoming a stumble at the start and have been building momentum since mid-April. The Tempest continued the run with the victory Friday that ended Covenant’s year in the VISAA semifinals.
“We’re playing really well right now—we feel like we’re peaking at the right time,” “We had our bumps and bruises at the beginning of the season…but we feel like we can compete with anyone.”
Covenant actually jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Hannah Klein goal where the junior lofted the ball over the head of Trinity’s keeper. The Eagles also appeared to survive the counterattack by Trinity when a shot careened off the crossbar just about a minute later.
But the Tempest started finishing about 11 minutes, later, with Mary Piescik chipping the ball in for the equalizer. Piescik followed that with a timely rebound when Theresa DeCelle with just under three minutes left in the first half, transforming a Covenant lead into a frustrating deficit for the Eagles.
“She’s got a ton of speed and you’ve just got to make sure her head is in the right place and the aggressiveness is there,” Taylor said. “Obviously it was today.”
Covenant battled back in the second half and managed to create some chances, but the Eagles couldn’t overcome the letdown in the final 10 minutes in the first half. Covenant’s defense did manage to limit Trinity’s chances, but because the Tempest capitalized so well, the limited shots didn’t factor into the outcome.
“They finished well…I’m thinking of three good chances they missed and three they made,” said Covenant coach Pat Campbell. “They didn’t have a lot of other chances, but they knew how to attack.”
While Covenant’s season ends, Campbell was pleased with the squad’s growth and energy throughout the season.
“Their coach needs to teach them how to finish chances better but they fight really hard,” Campbell said. “They play the game fair and hard…I love the way they play it.”
Trinity goes head-to-head in a rematch of last season’s final with Tandem Saturday night at 8 p.m.
