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After cruising to a 20-5 first round NCS playoff victory over Petaluma on Tuesday, the Girls Varsity Lacrosse team knew that they were facing a much tougher opponent on Thursday. The Piedmont Highlanders came into the contest with a 14-4 record, with one of those losses coming by a final score of 10-9 in an overtime thriller against the Dons in early March.
Against that backdrop, the Dons came out strong. Grace Colaco scored the first two goals of the game, the first on a penalty shot and the second on an assist from Grace Imrie that they celebrated with a big embrace. Grace Imrie scored the third goal of the quarter for the Dons on a nice bounce shot. Ella Thomason almost had a goal in the quarter on a shot off the crossbar that was kicked in by a Highlander defender (apparently that doesn’t count). The Dons defense, anchored by goalie Addie Martin and defenders Avery Ives, Claire Zimmerman, Kelly Todhunter, and Reese Tierney, pitched a shutout in the quarter. Addie had several saves, including one on a sidearm penalty shot that she was able to corral. At the end of Q1 it was 3-0 Dons.
The Highlanders got on the board in the second quarter, scoring their first goal on a penalty shot. Ella Thomason got on the board in Q2 with a nice fake out and score. That was all the scoring in Q2, so the Dons went to the proverbial locker room (aka huddle on the field) sporting a 4-1 lead.
In the second half, the Dons were able to extend their lead to 6-1 courtesy of two goals by Grace Imrie, the latter of which gave her a hat trick on the day. She also took one for the team, sacrificing her body to take a charge which likely prevented a goal. Avery Ives also showed tremendous effort, sprinting all the way down the field on one play to get back on defense. Despite the Don’s effort, the momentum changed in a big way for the rest of the quarter as the Highlanders scored 4 unanswered goals, with two coming on penalty shots. After Q3 it was 6-5 Dons.
The 4th quarter started as a back and forth affair. The Highlanders scored first, tying the game at 6, The Dons took the lead again when Catalina Liu scored seconds after checking into the game on a nice assist from Ella Thomason, but the Highlanders answered with a goal of their own to tie the game at 7-7. But that would be the last goal that the Highlanders would score as Addie (who had an outstanding 11 saves on the day) and the rest of the defense shut down the Highlanders offense. The Dons took the lead for good when Grace Imrie bypassed a penalty shot to make a great assist to Stella Hamilton for the goal, and then Catalina Liu had an assist to Tea Smith who converted a much needed insurance goal.
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The girls hit the road to take on top seed San Marin on Tuesday, May 7th at 5:30pm. Go Dons!