MORGANTOWN — Hannah Calvert has no idea why her mom, Kari, had such an interest in lacrosse, and the only reason she tried it herself was to make mom happy.
“My mom always watched it and loved it, and my brother (Cody) and I didn’t really want to do it,” Calvert said Monday. “She kind of forced us to go to the practices and just said, ‘See if you like it.’
“We ended up both loving it.”
A mother’s intuition is rarely wrong, as Cody went on to star for the Morgantown High boys’ lacrosse team and signed with Mount Union (Ohio), while Hannah is a University of Charleston signee, leading the Mohigans’ girls’ team and hoping for a state championship this season.
Her five goals Monday night against Spring Mills at Pony Lewis Field pushed MHS into the state semifinals of the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association playoffs in a 15-5 win.
Although Calvert was the leading scorer, as she’s been in many games for the No. 2-seeded Mohigans, there were five teammates who also ticked a box in the goal column, including four from Riley Chevront, two each from Rachel Hollander and Kieana Thomas, and single goals from Mallory Wiles and Rachel Dennis.
As a team, MHS also combined for nine assists on its 15 goals.
The team aspect of lacrosse, which the Mohigans put on full display against the Cardinals, is what drew Calvert to the sport after those first few practices.
“I love that it’s a team sport, and whenever I first started, all of my friends played it, so it’s like I’m with my family when I play it,” she said.
Calvert scored the first goal of the game within the first minute, and MHS began to pile it on from there. It never trailed and jumped out to a 7-2 lead at halftime. The Mohigans struggled to score at the start of the second half, but erupted to scored four goals in three minutes to blow the game wide open, including a goal from Calvert.
“She’s improved a lot over the last few years,” head coach Rich Farber said. “This year, she’s really stepped up — learned to settle the ball a lot, move the ball and not be forcing stuff. She’s the heart and soul of our team right now. She’s a scorer, for sure.”
Calvert lost her junior season because of COVID-19 in 2020, but it was supposed to be the last campaign for a big senior class. Despite not playing at all last year and needing to replace a lot of veteran leadership, the Mohigans are just two wins away from a state championship. They last won it all in 2017 and have 11 overall (won nine straight from 1999-2007).
“We kind of had to restart this year, but I think we’ve really improved toward the end of the year because we all finally got to know each other and it wasn’t a completely new team like it was at the beginning of the year.”
MHS will travel to No. 1 Fairmont Senior in the semifinals Thursday. The Polar Bears knocked off University on Monday night to advance.
Regardless of the winner, the state championship will be held at MHS on Saturday.
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