Last week’s weather forecast for the Pennsylvania Independent Schools lacrosse final four games was: boiling hot on Tuesday for the semifinals, and much cooler and rainy for Thursday’s championship game.

The top-seeded Penn Charter girls weren’t fazed. They fried fourth-seeded defending champion Agnes Irwin on Tuesday, 16-3, then defeated 2024 champ Episcopal Academy on Thursday, 7-4.

As the highest seed for the PAIS tournament, the Quakers hosted both of last week’s games. On Thursday, second-seeded Episcopal led 2-1 after the opening quarter, but was outscored by Penn Charter, 6-2, the rest of the way.

During the Inter-Ac League season (here the league championship is based on win/loss records), PC and EA split their two contests, with each game decided by a single goal. After a March 19 loss at Episcopal gave them an overall record of 2-2, the Quakers won their last 24 games. They became sole Inter-Ac champions with a 9-1 record when EA suffered a second league loss late in the season, falling to Agnes Irwin.

Both the Quakers and the Churchwomen have seniors headed to NCAA Division I college programs. Penn Charter is sending Harbor Campbell to Loyola, Molly Dougherty to Michigan, Aliya Leonard to Towson, Ana Buckley to Dartmouth, and Maeve Magarity to Boston College. Magarity, the Quakers’ goalie, is the niece of head coach Colleen Magarity Kelly, and she was named the Inter-Ac League MVP for 2026.

Episcopal Academy has Sofia Gagliardi heading to Maryland, Caitlin McCarthy to Duke, Caroline Johnston to Cornell, and Nora Bailer to West Point.

It was an EA junior, Ellie Schreder, who opened the scoring in last Thursday’s PAIS final, launching a successful shot from near the crease on the right side with just 37 seconds elapsed. At the other end of the field, the shot clock was running out on the Quakers when Lila Gonnella fed the ball from behind the cage to set up a strike by fellow junior Claire Cho out front.

This evened things up at 1-1 with 9:41 still remaining in the first quarter, but the period would end with a 2-1 EA lead after Schreder scored a second goal with 1:49 to go. The Quakers seized the subsequent draw and saw Buckley drive through the middle of the arc, but her shot was stopped by the senior goalie for the Churchwomen, Fallon Crowther.

Penn Charter was able to get that tying goal with 1:08 elapsed in the second round, when Dougherty assisted on a marker by Gonnella. A little less than two minutes later, it was Gonnella providing the assist and freshman Sophie Wilmerding penetrating through the left side of the arc to score and move the Quakers ahead.

Just 53 seconds after that, the tally was 4-2. Junior Cate Wall was handling the ball behind the cage, then found Buckley on a cut to the cage for the goal.

Near the end of the first half, a yellow card left the hosts shorthanded, and Episcopal sophomore Maeve Irish scored to get the visitors back within one for the intermission, 4-3.

That score held up for much of the third quarter. With four-and-a-half minutes left, EA’s Irish stumbled on a drive to the goal and got off a rather unpredictable shot while falling, but PC’s Magarity stopped the ball. With 3:45 left, Gonnella dodged several Episcopal defenders to put Penn Charter up 5-3.

EA attacked, but Magarity intercepted a pass to give the Quakers possession and the Quakers called time-out with 90 seconds left. When play resumed, a poorly aimed Penn Charter shot went right into the body of Episcopal’s Crowther.

The Churchwomen attacked furiously in the waning moments of round three, but Magarity stood tall in the cage. She repelled shots by Johnston and McCarthy to preserve her team’s two-goal margin for the start of the fourth quarter.

Early on, a Penn Charter shot was stopped by Crowther, and with nine-and-a-half minutes left to play, an attempt by EA’s Maya Le was foiled by Magarity. A minute later, the Quakers were ahead 6-3 when junior Lila Marciniak put away a high shot from the right side of the arc.

The margin quickly dropped back to two points as EA’s Irish charged right down off the draw to score for the visitors. On the following draw, Charter center Makenna Myers (a sophomore) and Buckley were shaken up when they collided. PC still got the ball, thanks to Cho.

Episcopal came close to making it a one-goal game with a little under six minutes remaining, but Magarity once again came through as she saved a shot by Irish at the top right corner of the cage.

PC played a good ball possession game after that. On several occasions when they missed a shot, the Quakers hustled to recover the rebound to reset the shot clock. The 7-4 final score went up on the board with 3:07 on the ticker, when a drive from the left by Buckley ended with a shot that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and down into the goal.

Penn Charter controlled the draw once again, and the Churchwomen hurt themselves with a pair of two-minute penalties, with 2:53 and 2:37 remaining. Magarity made her 10th and final save of the game on a shot by Gagliardi with seven seconds to go. After that came a short countdown to a raucous PC celebration.