After losing a 2-1 match to eventual champion Episcopal Academy in the semifinals of the 2023 Pa. Independent Schools tournament, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy's 2024 squad advanced into this year's championship match with a pair of victories last week.

The SCH Blue Devils, the Inter-Ac League champs this fall, were seeded first for the PIAS tournament and proceeded to defeat eighth-seeded Germantown Academy, 1-0, in last Monday's quarterfinal round. Playing at home again in a Thursday semifinal, the Devils downed number four Agnes Irwin, 3-0, to reach the finals.

SCH would face second-seeded Westtown School, which knocked off seventh-seeded Perkiomen School in the quarterfinals, 3-1, and topped number three Episcopal, 1-0, in the semis.

High-scoring sophomore Alex de Beaulac had been out sick for SCH on October 29, the day that the Blue Devils clinched the 2024 Inter-Ac championship with a win over the Academy of Notre Dame.

She was back in action for last Monday's PAIS tourney opener, and immediately made her presence felt. Running onto a through ball sent up by classmate Cali Smith, de Beaulac scored just 36 seconds into the match.

Despite a number of subsequent attacks by Springside Chestnut Hill, de Beaulac's early strike would stand as the lone goal of the game. This was due in large part to a gritty effort in the Patriots' goal by senior Gabby Bowes. Bowes, who'll be playing basketball at Millersville University, made some routine saves and also several very dramatic stops and deflections to finish with 11 saves.

Looking to recreate her first-half heroics, De Beaulac almost scored again in the opening minute of the second period, but Bowes caught the ball near the right post. Smith had the ball in the middle of the box a little later, but was unable to put much force into a shot at the visitors' cage.

Later on, a GA back whiffed on an attempt to clear the ball away from in front of the goal. A shot by the Blue Devils hit the left post high up and the ball dropped down on the goal line, but it never crossed the line entirely.

The Patriots were not without opportunities on offense, but most of the time the SCH field defenders handled the threats and the hosts did not mark down any saves for senior keeper Gracyn Lee-Torchiana.

Midway through the second half, a GA forward took the ball to the top right corner of the box with a Blue Devil back marking her. When the attacker fell down Germantown argued for a penalty kick, but the linesman asserted that the Patriot player had stumbled and had not been fouled.

At the other end, the hosts were never able to score an insurance goal, but their 1-0 lead held up until the end of the game.

Agnes Irwin, which defeated Penn Charter, 3-1, in the PIAS quarterfinals, arrived at SCH for Thursday's semifinal without its leading scorer. Freshman Dylan Ohm had been called up to practice with the U.S. junior national team training squad. Similar commitments had kept SCH sophomore Deus Stanislaus out of the Blue Devils' line-up for the entire season.

Again, de Beaulac played a role in the first Springside goal. On a ball served in by Smith, she went up for a header, but was out-jumped by an Irwin defender. When the ball bounced up high off of the Irwin player's head and toward the goal, AIS goalie Lindsay Reidenbach appeared to lose track of it for a second, and it bounced into the Owls' nest.

After their own-goal, the Owls attacked vigorously through the middle of the first half. On one outside shot by the visitors, the ball bounced off of Lee-Torchiana, but she was able to dive on the loose ball before any Irwin players could get a foot on it.

The Blue Devils picked up a second goal with just seven seconds left in the first half. Smith put the ball in play on a restart from the right side, and de Beaulac got a touch on it at the near post, keeping the ball rolling across the goalmouth until sophomore Ryleigh Bakley closed in from the left to stuff it in.

The Devils went up 3-0 in the second half when sophomore Ella Thompson scored off of a corner kick by Smith. After the game, SCH head coach Aaron Tritch would praise the play of senior outside backs Lida Golovyeko and Jolie Kaoma.

Irwin, which has become one of the Inter-Ac's top teams under the leadership of former SCH assistant coach Namit Deshpande, would succumb to Episcopal Academy the following day, 2-0, in the traditional league finale for the two schools. The Owls would finish third in the league behind SCH (10-2) and Episcopal (9-2-1) with a record of 8-4.

Penn Charter and Germantown Academy played their last Inter-Ac game, as usual, on GA-PC Day, which fell on Saturday, November 9. Goals by Ally Bradby, Jul Toomey, and Alexis Regan propelled the Quakers to a 3-0 victory. PC finished the league in fourth place, with a record of 6-4-2, followed by Notre Dame (4-7-1), GA (3-9), and Baldwin School (0-12).