Though the seeds and the bracket is set for the girls lacrosse state tournament, St. Joseph's had one last chance to prove that they belong in the conversation on who is the best team around.
The Angels did just that by beating the state's best on Wednesday.
Junior Susie Meskill's goal with 2:40 left was the exclamation mark on a second-half rally that gave St. Joe's a 7-6 win over Nerinx Hall, the state's top-ranked team and the No. 1 seed in the postseason.
It was the Angels' fourth straight win and improved the club to 9-5 on the season. St. Joe's is the sixth seed in the tournament that starts tomorrow.
“We were intimidated coming in but we pulled together. Our offense and defense was working awesome and it showed. It was probably our best game of the season. It was great to end the regular season on this,” St. Joe senior captain Katlin Davis said. “We had a lot of drive and with this being our last game on our home field we wanted to end it well.”
Junior middie Grace Zuniga tallied a game-high three points on two goals and an assist while junior middie Amanda Hoffmeyer scored twice and Meskill finished with a goal and an assist for the Angels, who will go into the state playoffs as the No. 6 seed.
Senior middies Missy Grelly and Kaitlin Davis each scored to add to the Angels’ offense.
St. Joe started senior Lizzie Esslinger in goal for Senior Night and junior goalie Brittany Millsap, the teams regular starter, closed things out and saved six shots.
Four of the Angels' five losses this year have been by one goal.
“This was huge. They put all of their heart and soul into proving that they're not the No. 6 team in the state,” St. Joe's Coach Jen Bisch said. “This makes our record look a little bit better. This was fun to win one ourselves by one.”
In defeat, junior middie Emily Behr scored twice for the Markers, who fell to 12-2. Nerinx's previous loss came against Lafayette.
“It was thrilling but it stinks to lose your last regular season game,” Nerinx Hall Coach Jody Patterson said. “Anybody in the top six seeds is able to win that is why it is so exciting now in St. Louis for all girls lacrosse.”
With the game tied at four at halftime, the Markers scored back-to-back goals to start things off as Lauren Boland followed a Behr goal by reaching the back of the net with 5:47 to play in regulation to give the Markers a 6-4 lead.
It didn't take long for the Angels to answer.
Hoffmeyer scored with 4:50 remaining to pull the Angels within a goal and Zuniga tied things up with 4:26 remaining.
“At the timeout after we got down I told them, this is it. I looked at my captains and said, this is the last game on the soil. What do you want to do? We won't play here in the tournament, how do you want to walk off the field,” Bisch said.
In the final minute after the go-ahead goal, Millsap made the last of her six saves to secure the victory.
“I thought we had the momentum being up 6-4. But after the time out, St. Joe dominated the last five minutes,” Patterson said. “ If that happens next week, you're out. We kind of gave up. After they came back to score to make it 6-5 we kind of stopped playing. We weren't talking, we weren't communicating.”
