The girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy closed out the Inter-Ac League season with a 1-0 victory at the Academy of Notre Dame last Tuesday, the first of several chilly days in the middle of the week.

The Blue Devils became the first of the league's seven girls' teams to complete its 12 Inter-Ac games, securing at least third place in the final standings with a record of 8-3-1.

Ahead of them were 2023 champion Episcopal Academy and Agnes Irwin, who would play one another on November 10 as part of the traditional all-sports weekend involving EA, Irwin, and Haverford School. A win by the Irwin Owls would give them second place outright with a 9-2-1 mark, but if the EA Churchwomen prevailed, they'd wind up at 11-0-1 and Irwin would slip into a tie for second with SCH.

The Devils had come away with a loss and a tie against Episcopal in head-to-head play, and had suffered a pair of 1-0 setbacks against Irwin. Two days after the SCH-Notre Dame contest last Tuesday, the Irish finished their regular season slate at Baldwin School with a 3-2 victory. Notre Dame thus finished 5-7 in the Inter-Ac, with a chance of tying Penn Charter for fourth place if the Quakers lost their last game to GA and slipped to a 5-7 mark. Following that scenario, GA would still place sixth, at 3-9. Baldwin has already settled into seventh place, at 0-11-1.

Germantown Academy and Penn Charter wouldn't be done until their annual GA-PC Day meeting, on November 11.

SCH attacked early in Tuesday's regular-season swansong at Notre Dame. Freshman Deus Stanislas, who would eventually furnish the only goal of the afternoon, had a shot from the middle of the 18 tipped over the crossbar, and just after that there was a near miss on a header by junior Lida Goloveyko. Notre Dame has an excellent goalie in junior Sophie Hall, and in the first half the Blue Devils made her job easy by seeming to shoot the ball right at her hands instead of toward open space.

Goloveyko had an on-net shot saved, as did freshman Ryleigh Bakley. A well-struck cross by junior Jolie Kaoma set up a shot from the left side by Stanislas, but once again Hall made the save.

The AND keeper's sister, Ava, is a freshman who focuses on the other end of the field. She made a number of counterattacks for the Irish, but most of the time her teammates appeared to watch her instead of providing support, and the solo assaults fizzled.

After one of these charges, SCH came back down the field and Stanislas sent the ball into the arms of the elder Hall. Later, Bakley carried the back through the midfield and pushed a nice pass ahead to senior Abby Udowenko, but her shot, too, travelled to the middle of the goal, and not the corners.

Right as the first half expired, Stanislas appeared to score on a breakaway, but just before she shot, the officials saw the ball touch her arm and the attempt was negated.

The Blue Devils continued to attack as the second half began, and long shots by Udowenko and freshman Cali Smith were hauled in by Notre Dame's Sophie Hall.

Nine minutes into the new period the younger Hall sister gave the visitors a scare as she penetrated across the 18 and got off a shot. Gracyn Lee-Torchiana, the Blue Devils' junior goalkeeper, blocked the ball near the right post and then was able to dive on it as the Irish tried to follow up the first shot.

This little twinge of worry may have done Springside some good; about two minutes later, the Devils put in the only goal of the afternoon. A pass from Smith found Stanislas with her back to the goal in the middle of the box, a little bit right of center. She turned and fired, and although Hall was starting to move over to the right side, the SCH freshman placed the ball just inches inside the post and the keeper couldn't reach it.

Up to that point, most of the Devils' shots had been too easy to track, with Hall able to keep her eyes on the ball from the shooter's foot all the way into her arms.

The goal seemed to take the visitors' intensity up a notch, and although a single strike by the Irish would've tied the game, SCH now controlled play to a large extent. On their most serious scoring attempt, the Irish came up the middle got off a shot on the ground with about six minutes to go, but Lee-Torchiana dropped down to smother the ball.

The Blue Devils were awarded a corner kick in the final seconds, but time ran out before they put the ball in play.