USM girls fall to Hudson by single goal in state lacrosse title game
· Yahoo Sports
SUN PRAIRIE – University School of Milwaukee fell to Hudson 12-11 in the third annual Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state girls lacrosse championship June 13.
A go-ahead goal by Hudson's Josie Jones with 42 seconds remaining lifted the Raiders to a repeat title, while USM fell to runner-up for the second time in three years. The title game was a rematch of a May 16 meeting with Hudson that went 17-7 to the Raiders, but USM was confident in its preparation the second time around.
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"I think we focused too much on them. This week we really put an emphasis on focusing on USM and what we do best," coach Kate Viviano said.
The Wildcats kept pace early with Hudson despite falling behind 2-0 on goals by Harper Bradley and Josie Jones in the first three minutes. USM answered with two goals of its own coming in seven seconds of game clock. Senior Sofie Bucher assisted fellow senior Gabi Ortiz Fleet on the first, while senior Darcy Doyle capitalized on the momentum of a won faceoff out of the ensuing stoppage to penetrate and score an early equalizer to make it 2-2 with 8:29 left in the first period.
USM took the lead just under two minutes later as Bucher took advantage of a free shot to give the Wildcats a 3-2 advantage. Hudson answered with a 3-0 run to close out the quarter. The Raiders tied things up at three on a Reagan Kubler assist to Jones. Then Jones would score unassisted three minutes later to take a 4-3 lead. Disaster struck for USM in the final minute of the first as senior goalie Alice Gardner lost possession behind the net, which Bradley took advantage of for a goal to make it 5-3 after one quarter.
The Wildcats climbed back within a goal nearly four minutes into the second quarter as Doyle scored unassisted. Hudson responded with three straight goals over the next four minutes. Vanessa Pedersen scored off an assist from Gretchen Whitten, Bradley scored on a free position shot and Whitten added an unassisted tally to make it 8-4. Anna Solberg cut the rally in the final two minutes of the half with a free position goal to take an 8-5 deficit into the half.
"The message [at half] was, 'We believe in you, flip a switch of your attitude right now and believe in yourselves,' " Viviano said.
The lead for Hudson grew to five early in the second half as Pedersen scored unassisted and Bradley added a free position goal. Doyle cut it back to three in the latter half of the third, scoring a pair of free position goals to make it 10-7 Hudson.
Whitten added her second goal of the game with a minute left in the quarter to give the Raiders an 11-7 lead entering the fourth.
USM got back within a single goal in the first four minutes of the fourth as a Lucy Konkol free position goal preceded two more goals for Doyle to make it 11-10. Just before the five-minute mark, Doyle struck for a third goal in the quarter to tie the game with 5:06 remaining.
The Northwestern commit said playing freely allowed her to not dwell on the score and force things offensively.
"I just want to play how I play, and so that's what I mostly tried to do, and I wasn't trying to focus on anything. I was trying to look for the good looks, trust my teammates, look for the open lanes and just try to get open and score," Doyle said.
As the game tightened, so did the whistles in the final two minutes. Doyle was called for a mouthguard violation with roughly 2:20 left.
"Some calls didn't go our way, but those are out of our control, and we still had two shots, two looks at the end, and it just didn't fall in our favor this year," Viviano said.
Asked specifically about the mouthguard violation, Viviano said she had not seen that called before.
"No comment," Viviano said with a slight smile.
Bucher had two fouls called on her in the final two minutes as well, helping Hudson take possession for what eventually became Jones' go-ahead goal. A final attempt at an equalizer by Ortiz Fleet was saved by Hudson's Amelia Seidling as the Raiders controlled the ball for the final 30 seconds.
Doyle led USM with seven goals. Bucher had a goal and an assist, while Konkol, Ortiz Fleet and Solberg each added one goal. In goal, Gardner had five saves and a save percentage of 29.4%.
The Wildcats finished the season at 17-4. Doyle and Bucher were each recognized as All-Americans by USA Lacrosse, as well as first-team all-state players alongside junior defender Stella Nicoli.
"I was almost in tears in the locker room thinking that they're not going to be here next year and it sucks, because I was with them their sophomore year and now their senior year, and to leave without a state championship is really unfortunate because I think they're the class that deserves it the most right now, with their hard work and their love for the game," Viviano said.
Doyle said she will remember bonding with teammates off the field as much as playing with them on it.
"I was just really happy we made it this far, just because I love every single person on the team," Doyle said. "They're all my best friends from school. I played volleyball, basketball with a lot of them, and I've been with them all year. They're all some of my closest friends. ... I'm just glad we got to go another week together. I just really appreciated it."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: University School falls in WIAA high school girls lacrosse state final