GA seniors Ali Crump (left) and Isabelle Jacobs are going on to Harvard and Brown, respectively. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

After placing fifth in the final Inter-Ac League lacrosse standings with a 4-8 record, the girls of Germantown Academy went on to a higher finish in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools tournament.

Last Monday, the fifth-seeded Patriots defeated number four Baldwin School, 14-11, to reach the PAIS semifinals. The next day they succumbed to top-seeded Episcopal Academy, the 2017 Inter-Ac champion, by a score of 20-13.

In league play this spring, Episcopal's 12-0 record included a pair of narrow victories over runner-up Agnes Irwin. With all of its Inter-Ac losses coming against those two schools, the Academy of Notre Dame wound up third in the league with an 8-4 mark, while Penn Charter was fourth, at 5-7.

Splitting their head-to-head series, PC and GA each won their two games against Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (1-11), but the Quakers also swept Baldwin School (2-10), while Germantown won a game over at Baldwin but then lost at home in its rematch with the Bears. Baldwin and SCH split in their home-away Inter-Ac series.

In the PAIS tournament, the season ended for eighth-seeded SCH with a 16-8 loss to Episcopal in a quarterfinal game last Monday, and on the same afternoon the 2017 campaign concluded for the Quakers, who fell to number three Notre Dame, 9-6. The second seed, Agnes Irwin, rolled past sixth-ranked Hill School in another quarterfinal, 16-6.

After the Patriots split with Baldwin during the league season (each bout was decided by a single point), last week's meeting became a best-of-three rubber match. GA enjoyed a little more of a cushion in a three-goal victory over the Bears the third time out.

Sophomore Olivia Doody led the way with six goals, netting the 100th of her brief Patriot career along the way. Doody has made a verbal commitment to play for Fairfield University, and was picked for the top team representing the Pennsylvania Area Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association (PASLA) team in the 2017 Women's National Tournament.

GA seniors Isabelle Jacobs and Belle McMahan each recorded three goals and two assists in the win over Baldwin. The other goals were supplied by senior Ali Crump and sophomore Cam Korman, while another 10th-grader, goalie Zoe Torrey, booked nine saves in the match.

Episcopal would present a more difficult challenge the following day, but with a seven-goal difference at the end, the Patriots stayed closer to the Churchwomen than they had in the regular season, when both of their bouts with EA were decided by 11 points.

Seniors McMahon and Crump each produced a hat trick, while Doody, Jacobs, and freshman Maddi Ota provided two goals apiece and Korman scored once. Torrey finished with eight saves as GA completed the 2017 stick season with an overall record of 9-12.

In the other PAIS semifinal, Irwin rolled past Notre Dame, 12-3, and then the Owls downed Episcopal in the championship match, 14-7.