Under torrents of rain on the Haverford turf, the Haven girls lacrosse team defeated Villa Maria Academy, winning the district championship 10-7.
The team walked onto the turf, prepared to give it their all, and started off strong with an early 5-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.
“I think we’ve been ready for this game since that last whistle of our last game. Everyone here came out with this energy. You could tell we wanted more,” senior captain Annie Dignazio said.
As the match went on, Haven maintained strong consistency with offense, pursuing goals at every given opportunity. Seniors captain Kate Fox, Dignazio, sophomore Weiler Graham, and freshmen Blake Fairbanks and Paige Steere scored goals.
“We have some stars on our team, but it’s been so great over these past two weeks in districts and the end of our season to see our defense really shine and really start to really hold teams to two goals and to see our goalies get better and then to see our younger kids, our younger attackers, bring their game up and contribute as well,” head coach Pigeon Graham said.
The defense put a strong cleat forward during this close game. In 18 of Villa Maria Academy’s shots on goals, sophomore goalkeeper Ellie Yancey saved 11 of the score attempts— with only seven scoring goals.
“We [the defense] figured out how to play after this one girl would rip [shoot hard] from the eight meter, and we figured out that we need to crash early, so that helped a lot,” Yancey said. “And we were all communicating really loudly. I think that was a huge part of the defense. We were just always ready to get an interception or slide really fast and attack really fast.”
In addition to the district championship win, the team also celebrated Dignazio’s 200th career goal, surprising her with a handmade poster.
As the team enters the state tournament, they hope to make it far and take home the state championship trophy.
“It’s so awesome to be on this team that won the district championship and hopefully does very well in states,” Fairbanks said.
The lacrosse team will host Archbishop Wood on Tuesday, June 3, at 5:30 p.m. on George L. King Field in the first round of the PIAA 2A State tournament.
