Spalding senior midfielder Christy Konrad (left) led her team with five goals and the Cavaliers topped host St. Mary's, 13-9.
St. Mary's High School junior midfielder Julie Schindel (right) had three goals but it wasn't enough as Spalding's Catherine Gartner and the Cavaliers pulled out a 13-9 win.
The turnaround the
Archbishop Spalding High School girls lacrosse program is experiencing this season has been nothing short of amazing.
The Cavaliers were winless in their first two years in the ultra-competitive IAAM A Conference. However, this year a new coach and the team's new attitude has Spalding flirting with first place in the conference.
Knocking off their archrival for the first time since 2004 could be the icing on the cake.
Senior midfielder Christy Konrad scored five goals and junior goalkeeper Cosette Larash made several key saves to lead the Cavaliers to a 13-9 victory over
St. Mary's in a pivotal IAAM A Conference game Thursday in Annapolis.
The Cavaliers (11-3 overall, 7-3 in the conference) have won five of their last six and are right on the heels of undefeated John Carroll in the conference standings.
"We've wanted this for so long," said Konrad, a four-year varsity player. "Spalding is back."
Konrad's left-handed shot from 10 yards out got past Saints goalkeeper Natalie Wills with 8:01 left and it gave the Cavaliers a 10-9 lead it would not relinquish. Junior midfielder Danielle Kirk (three goals, assist), senior midfielder Katie Kirk and Konrad each scored down the stretch to seal the victory.
"In the beginning of the season, all we wanted was some respect," said Spalding's first-year coach Moira Leavitt, whose team still has upcoming bouts at
John Carroll (4/21) and at
Severn (4/25) before the conference playoffs start in early May.
"Now we believe we can go the distance. We've always had the horses in the stable and it wasn't a matter of building skill. We just changed the way they think about the game."
St. Mary's (8-5, 5-4) won the battle for the draw controls (13-9) and scooped twice as many ground balls as Spalding, but the Cavaliers established themselves early when they opened a 4-1 lead and stayed on the offensive throughout.
Konrad scored twice during Spalding's early surge along with Danielle Kirk and junior attacker Stefanie Paskal. The Saints cut the lead to one with 10:04 left in the first and the teams traded scores before the Cavaliers went into the break with a 6-5 advantage.
"We kept our cool the whole time," said Konrad, whose team lost the lead in the second half but then countered with five unanswered goals. "We knew we had to stay strong until the end. St. Mary's is a good team and if let up at all, we knew that they would come back."
Larash's performance in front of the Spalding cage sparked the team with each point-blank save she made.
"Our defense plays such a big role," said Larash, who registered 14 saves. "I always say that if the defense is awesome, then I'm awesome. They were sliding, they were talking -- they just did such an awesome job."
Saints junior midfielder Julie Schindel streaked through traffic and scored to lift St. Mary's to its first lead of the game, 9-8, with 13:11 left. Schindel led her team in scoring with three goals.
"Julie has been tremendous all season long," Saints coach Sue Chittum said. "She's really starting to play with confidence and her shot selection is just awesome."
Junior midfielder Melissa Perkins tallied two goals and an assist for St. Mary's and scored off a free position to knot the score, 8-8. Senior attacker Caroline Cochran netted two goals while senior Megan Schrum and sophomore Leigh Ruland had two helpers each.
"I thought we had a tremendous game except for a couple three-minute spurts here and there," said Chittum, whose team has dropped four straight after a five-game win streak.
"This stings. This stings really bad but it's a long season and everyone makes the playoffs. We'd like to see them again."
Spalding (11-3) 6 7 - 13
St. Mary's (8-5) 5 4 - 9
GOALS: AS - Konrad 5, D. Kirk 3, Morrison, Dalton, K. Kirk, Palasik, Paskal; STM - Schindel 3, Cochran 2, Perkins 2, Dalton, Koolage. ASSISTS: AS - Johnson, D. Kirk; STM - Ruland 2, Schrum 2, Perkins, Dalton. SAVES: AS - Larash 14; STM - Wills 7. GROUND BALLS: AS - 12; STM - 24. FACEOFFS: AS - 9; STM - 13.