Back to back
Hampton, Pine-Richland win second consecutive lacrosse titles
Win or lose, it was was guaranteed to be a special evening for Hampton girls lacrosse head coach Kelsey Viets and her senior class.
Thursday’s Class 2A championship match marked the end of a sevenyear journey between the head coach and senior group. Viets had been with the class since they were sixth-graders with Hampton’s middle school girls lacrosse team. When they made the jump to Hampton’s high school team in 2014, Viets did too.
Hampton has steadily grown under Viets’ watch, qualifying for the playoffs in 2015, making a run to the WPIAL semifinals in 2016 and winning it all last season. On Thursday night at Robert Morris, Hampton defeated Quaker Valley 11-9 to become the 2018 WPIAL girls lacrosse champion — the third team in the WPIAL to win back-to-back titles since girls lacrosse was officially recognized in 2009. Pine-Richland became the fourth team to do so two hours after Hampton’s win.
“It’s extra special,” Viets said. The seniors I’ve coached since they were sixth-graders. We made the transition to high school together. We’ve gotten some pretty awesome things done in high school. So this is a special feeling.”
Hampton fell behind 2-0 early, but a trio of goals by freshman midfielder Megan Cook gave Hampton the lead at the 15:05 mark of the first half. Cook would score her team-leading fourth goal at the 8:06 mark of the half to expand Hampton’s run to 6-0 and build a four-goal lead.
“She played junior varsity for the majority of the season; we used that for development,” Viets said. “I told her ‘Get ready.’ We pulled her up for WPIALs and some of those playoff games before the championship. I saw that she had what we needed on the field. Having three goals, four goals to seal off the victory, I think that she’ll go home tonight with a big smile on her face.”
Quaker Valley responded with four consecutive goals — three by Katherine Blaugrund, who had a game-high five goals — to tie the score at 6-6. Quaker Valley tied it again at 8-8 in the second half, but a pair of goals by junior Katie Cyphers and a score by junior midfielder Nikita Corbelli clinched the victory.
“The difference maker was a couple turnovers by our girls ...,” Quaker Valley head coach Nellie Kraus said. “And really it’s a shame. I don’t know if it was the nerves of the game. They were prepared ahead of time and knew they were going to put it all out there tonight, do their best. They did that 110 percent and I’m just really proud of them.”
Class 3A
A nearly flawless 50 minutes of play helped PineRichland make history Thursday night, as it defeated Sewickley Academy 11-3 to win its second consecutive WPIAL Class 3A championship. The Rams are now the fourth team in WPIAL history to do so, joining Hampton, North Hills (2011-12) and Shaler (2013-15).
Junior midfielder Kendall Gessner scored a gamehigh four goals. Pine-Richland led by as many as 10, as junior midfielder Lauren Juncal’s goal with 5:32 pushed the lead to 11-1.
“Last year was the first win in Pine-Richland history for girls lacrosse in the WPIAL,” Pine-Richland coach Brittany Adams said. “Now to have a repeat, these guys are making history and I hope they take it all in and embrace it, because they’ve certainly made their mark.”