Castle View’s excellent girls lacrosse season came tumbling down in the CHSAA state finals on May 19 at the University of Denver’s Peter Barton lacrosse stadium..
The top-seeded Sabercats couldn’t keep up with No. 2 seed Mead and lost 13-5 to the Longmont school.
Castle View, which edged Mead 7-6 in the season opener, ended the season with a 17-2 record after being the state runner-up in 2021 and a semifinal loser last season.
Mead, a first-year team with players from the St, Vrain school district, concluded the campaign with a 15-2 record.
“The pressure is tough and it was a bad time to have a bad game” said Castle View coach Sammantha Silverman. “We played hard all season and we grew so much this season and it was really special to have time with this team.”
Castle View scored the first goal of the title contest but then Mead took charge.
The Mavericks had better draw control, played a solid defense, and Lucy Connors with seven goals sparked a spirited Mead offense.
Senior Evie Tanella scored three times to spark the Sabercats.
Goals by Tanella and Riley Schultz got Castle View into a 3-3 tie in the first half with but the Mavericks responded with three tallies in just over three minutes.
Tessa Boehm’s goal pulled the Sabercats to within 6-4 at halftime and Castle View started the second half with a good possession but then Mead scored seven straight goals to take a 13-4 lead.
Tanella’s third goal of the game was the only second-half score for Castle View and it did not come until there was 3:30 remaining in the game.
“We kind of hoped our defense would wake up in the second half but we kind of lost our footing and our steps a little bit,” Silverman said. “Especially with draw control, we had it down in the beginning but we were kind of losing it for some reason.
“This is a family and we all support each other. There were a lot of seniors on this team and it was hard to lose this game.”
Tanella got the game winning goal in a 10-9 semifinal win over Green Mountain on May 17.
In the Class 5A championship game, top-seeded Colorado Academy defeated Regis Jesuit 11-6 at DU. In the semifinals, Colorado Academy ousted No. 4 Cherry Creek, 17-7 and Regis upset second seeded Valor Christian, 11-7.
