MORGANTOWN — For the first time since 2018, the University High girls’ lacrosse team will be playing for a state title on Saturday in the WVSLA championship at Davis & Elkins College.
The last time the Hawks were in the championship, they lost in overtime to George Washington after allowing a game-tying goal with 30 seconds left in regulation.
“That was a gut-wrencher,” UHS coach Kevin Armstrong said. “It feels good to be back, we’re hoping for a different result.”
To hoist the trophy on Saturday, however, the Hawks (15-3) will have to defeat nine-time and reigning state champion Fairmont Senior (19-0), who has not lost a game to an in-state opponent in three years.
“The last three years they’re 35-0 against teams in-state,” Armstrong said.
Included in those 35 wins are two games this season against the Hawks, although both were only by one goal each.
The first meeting was a 13-12 win in Fairmont, where UHS out-shot the Polar Bears 28-15, but FS goalie Liz Amons took over the game. The rematch was an 8-7 overtime game at UHS in which the Hawks led into the fourth quarter.
Armstrong said beating the Polar Bears on Saturday will be just as much of a mental challenge as it will be a physical one.
“That is something I think our girls have to wrestle with,” Armstrong said. “I’m sure part of them are torn a little bit that we can’t beat them. We’ve got our best team we’ve ever had and we still can’t beat them.”
However, those two one-goal losses proved, if nothing else, the Hawks can play right with Fairmont Senior.
“I think each of those close loses actually built confidence inside them to say, maybe in the past it was a foregone conclusion but we’re going into this game really believing the outcome is up in the air,” Armstrong said. “If we play our game the way we’re capable of, we should be okay.”
The top two offensive players in West Virginia this season are Fairmont’s Aubrey Harrison and Emily Decker. The next four highest-scorers in the state, however, all play for the Hawks in seniors Rebecca Chmiel (48 goals, 17 assists), Kelsie Kyle (39 goals,13 assists) and Zoey Mackey (48 goals, 20 assists) and junior Olivia Stewart (34 goals, 22 assists).
“One thing I like about those four is any one of them could have just decided ‘I’m going to be the alpha’ and just driven their stats up. None of them did,” Armstrong said. “They all bought into we’re going to get here, not because of one or two of us, but because of all four of us. They’ve really done a great job this season of understanding that.”
UHS also has a standout defense, allowing the fewest goals out of any team in the state, 81, while the next-closest team is Fairmont at 86.
Anchoring the defense, University has Lexi Priem and freshman Anna McBee. In goal in sophomore Lucy Lambert. This is Lambert’s second season in net after jumping in as a freshman last year. She has a 13-3 record with a 4.9 goals-against average.
“We didn’t have a goalie coming in (last season) and none of the other girls wanted to step in. Nobody likes to go in there and have those balls thrown at them,” Armstrong said. “Lucy came and wanted to take a stab at this. I give her a ton of credit, we needed a goalie last year and she stepped in and the team rallied behind her.”
The Division 1 girls’ championship between University and Fairmont Senior will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday at Davis & Elkins College.
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