On Tuesday, May 20th, the Manual Girls Lacrosse team faced Sacred Heart Academy in the semifinals of the 2014 state championship. The girls had faced off with Sacred Heart two other times during the season and lost both times by a score of 17-1 and 13-2. That being said, they knew they had a tough match ahead of them and had to prepare accordingly.

“Sacred Heart has so much talent on their team and it showed in the last two times we played them,” Rachel Hoskins (12,J&C) said, “but we weren’t discouraged. We went into the game with a positive attitude and played to the best of our ability.”

The game started off with Sacred Heart scoring 3 goals in the first 90 seconds. Manual had to adjust their defense accordingly in an attempt to hold off Sacred Hearts forwards. They did well, keeping the score at 3-2 for a good portion of the match. Sacred heart would end up being too strong and aggressive for Manual to hold back, winning the game by a score of 21-7.

Despite the loss, Manual prided themselves on the fact that they were the team in the tournament that scored the most goals (7) against Sacred Heart. This just goes to show that their offense can accell against the best defenses in the state.

Manual kept their heads held high, walking away from the 2014 season as a state semifinalist. Manual senior Samantha Grace-Mudd credited the team’s success to the chemistry that they developed over the course of a season.

“At the beginning of the season, we were a team with individual talent. Towards the end we combined our talent and formed a team that works really well together. We wouldn’t have gotten as far without that team building,” Grace-Mudd said.