Owls fall to Bellevue East in Overtime: Girls Division II Lacrosse State Championship

A flock of Owls celebrate after Overlake’s Grace Grubb (#21 white) hit scored with 1 second remaining in regulation to send the girls Division II state championship into overtime. The Owls fell to Bellevue East 17 - 16 in overtime. Division II.  Credit: Michael Jardine / US Lacrosse

Mike McQuaid, US Lacrosse press release

SAMMAMISH – Freshman Camille Sullivan scored the game winner with 7 seconds to go in overtime to give first year coach Craig Van der Horn and Bellevue East their first girls state championship with a 17 – 16 defeat of the Overlake School in the Washington Lacrosse Girls Division II State Championship, Saturday at Charlie Acosta Field on the Campus of the Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish.

The game winning goal was the seventh of the afternoon for the Sullivan and tied her season’s best – 7 goals in the home quarterfinal win over Bainbridge’s Division II squad. For Bellevue East, which draws students from five Bellevue high schools including Interlake, Newport and Sammamish, the title proved to be the high point in the fledgling four-year-old program’s history.  Read More >>

“The win feels incredible,” said Van der Horn. “The girls kept proving to me that they could work hard .

Fatigued and besieged with basic ball handling errors in the first half after the ordeal of a triple overtime 17 – 16 defeat of Klahowya in Wednesday’s semifinal, Bellevue East struggled to control the ball, finally slipping behind the Owls by six on an AD Gildner goal with 7:32 remaining in the half.

“They never showed us their game in the first half,” said Overlake head coach Sue Haviland. “They have so much talent – their stick skills and vision of the field are exceptional. Two weeks ago we had two halves of that. Today, with that margin, I felt like we were playing 0 – 0. I wasn’t comfortable in the slightest.”

Bellevue East responded to the challenge of falling behind, delivering three of the next four goals finished off by a Paige Romney score with just 4 seconds remaining to narrow the gap to 10 – 6 at the half.

“They were still dealing with nerves (in the first half),” said Van der Horn, who made the switch to a controlled offense midway through the first to rebuild the confidence of this squad. “I really had a belief in the team – that they could pull this off.”

The difference was noticable. After scoring three of the final four goals of the first half to narrow the Owls’ lead to 10 – 6 at the half, Bellevue East began pecking away at the Owls lead in the second, scoring 7 of the first 8 goals of the half to take the lead for the first time 12 – 11 on an Elizabeth Soffey shot at 12:50.

The Owls rebounded with the next three back-to-back capped by Kerri Smith whipping a backhanded shot past Samantha Gunnerson with 7:37 remaining to take a 14 – 12 lead, but Bellevue East responded on three Sullivan goals over the next 3 minutes to take a one goal lead going into the final minute.

In the final seconds, with the game seemingly in hand, the Owls Grace Grubb snatched a Zoe Pinczower pass and fired a shot past East goaltender Quinn Phillips with just 1 second remaining in regulation to force overtime.

In the first 3-minute overtime half, Silverman gave Overlake a 16 – 15 advantage on a solo shot with 1:51 remaining. After changing sides, Kayla Miller evened the score at 16 with 2:49 remaining. East bounced several shots wide of the goal before Miller hit the winner with just 7 seconds left.

For Bellevue East Sullivan finished with 7 goals, 2 assists and 9 ground balls to lead all scorers and Kayla Miller netted 5 goals and an assist while Samantha Gunnerson had 12 saves in goal. Overlake Kerri Smith led the Owls with 4 goals and 3 assists while Grace Grubb, Sarah Silverman and Mariel Frank each had 3 goals. Quinn Phillips had 4 saves in goal for the Owls.

Overlake finished the season with a 13-2-0 record. On the way to the state championship, the Owls finished the season winning their last seven games including a 14 – 12 decision over Wenatchee and a 15 – 2 defeat of Mercer Island. Once in the state tournament, the Owls went to work, notching a 19 – 3 quarterfinal win over Kennedy and downing Garfield 19 – 15 to earn a berth in the title game.

Despite dropping two of its last three games of the season on losses to the Owls and Lake Sammamish, Bellevue East rose to the occasion in the playoffs, dispatching Bainbridge in the opening round then Klahowya in a triple overtime victory to land in the final game. Bellevue east finished the season 13-2-0.