The girls varsity lacrosse team lost to the Villa Maria Hurricanes 12-8 in the PIAA 2A state final on a rainy day in State College on Saturday, June 14.
Although the Panthers defeated the Hurricanes twice this season, Villa Maria got the better of them this time.
“Everyone really wanted it. Everyone shared love of the game, shared the love of winning. We had a little rocky start to our season, but everyone’s improved so much and gotten so much better individually and as a team,” senior captain Annie Dignazio said.
Freshman Tessa Dignazio scored the first goal in under two minutes for the Panthers. However, it went downhill from there.
Multiple mistakes from the Panthers in the first half led to a three point lead by the Hurricanes with five seconds left in the second quarter. Still, the Panthers were not far behind.
“[At halftime,] I started off by saying a good news bad news situation,” head coach Pigeon Graham said. “The bad news is we’re not playing our best lacrosse. The good news is we can play our best lacrosse. I talked about making some adjustments and cleaning up some mistakes we were making.”
In the third quarter, the Hurricanes were constantly in possession, scoring four more goals, leaving the score 11-5 at the end of the quarter.
“Looking at what they’re giving us on defense and stepping up on them in the eight and getting on their hands, I think we just had difficulty with that,” senior captain Mallory Cavanagh said. “They’re obviously a really talented team, but I think sometimes we struggle with that a little bit.”
Senior captain Kate Fox gave the Panthers hope after scoring three goals in three minutes, leaving the score at 12-8 with five minutes left. However, Villa Maria played for possession, avoiding the Panthers from touching the ball for the last four minutes of the game.
The Panthers concluded their season as a state runner-up, a tough achievement for any team.
“The key to the success has been everybody’s willingness to buy into what we were doing and what we were asking of them,” Graham said. “There’s a lot of things going on in the spring, and not one person wavered from that. It was a great season and I love this team.”
This loss ends the 2025 season for Haven, as there are no teams left in the playoffs.
