Lady Terriers move to State Finals

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Last year, the Vandebilt girls’ soccer team made it to the last game of the season, but lost — a heartbreaking defeat in the Division III State Championship Match.

Now, exactly one year later, the Lady Terriers are back to the same spot where last year’s journey ended.


And this time, they’re hungry to right the wrongs of their immediate past.

Vandebilt stormed into the Division III State Championship Match last weekend, defending their No. 1 ranking in style with a dominant 3-1 victory over No. 5 St. Louis.

The Lady Terriers won every phase against their longtime postseason foe, clinching a spot in the State Championship Match against No. 2 Teurlings Catholic.


That match will be played tonight at 5 p.m. at UL-Lafayette’s Soccer Complex.

Teurlings punched their ticket into the finals with a 3-1 victory over No. 3 University Lab — the team that beat Vandebilt in the finals last year.

The two state finalists met in November — a hard-fought, contentious match that ended in a 1-all tie.


But right now, Vandebilt is playing much better than they did in November.

And it showed on Friday night.

Against St. Louis, Vandebilt dominated early and often, punching home their first goal of the match in the opening minutes — a strike from Lauren Andre to go up 1-0.


From there, Vandebilt maintained control with offensive pressure and opportunistic defense, which also helped to create offense.

The Lady Terriers added a goal midway through the first half to take control for good — a Sydney Marcel goal that ricocheted off the crossbar and into the net for a 2-0 lead — an advantage which held through halftime.

In the second half, the Lady Terriers officially made their way into the State Finals.


Early in the second half, Lillie Mazur struck to put the Lady Terriers up 3-0 — a dominant advantage that only got threatened late in the match when St. Louis got a last-minute goal to trim the deficit down to 3-1 before the end of play.

With the win, Vandebilt is now 20-4-4 on the year. They’re unbeaten since a Jan. 16 defeat against St. Scholastica.

But against Teurlings, they are also facing a red-hot side — a group that hasn’t lost since Dec. 15 — a 13-match unbeaten streak.


Since the start of 2019, Teurlings has outscored opponents 63-2 with 11 shutouts in their past 13 matches.

In the semifinals, they outplayed University, controlling the action throughout before rolling to a comfortable win.

SEMIFINAL BLUES PLAGUE TWO LOCALS


The Vandebilt Catholic girls’ soccer team will be the only group making the trek to Lafayette.

In the Division II girls’ bracket, St. Thomas More ended Central Lafourche’s trek, trumping the Lady Trojans 2-0 in the Semifinals — a repeat of the result of last year’s State Championship Match between the schools.

The loss ends Central Lafourche’s season with a 19–6-4 record.


Central Lafourche beat Terrebonne and Destrehan in the postseason before falling to St. Thomas More.

On the boys’ side, Vandebilt had eyes on repeating as the Division III State Champions — a goal which seemed even more realistic when the Terriers upset No. 1 St. Louis in the quarterfinals last week.

But in the Semifinals this past weekend, the Terriers were unable to display that same level of grit, falling 1-0 to Loyola Prep.


The Terriers were youthful with several freshmen and sophomores playing prized roles.

They’ll surely be one of the top teams in Division III again this season.

Soccer


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