Scholastic Notes

Southern region

North Carolina

DURHAM ACADEMY THE SOLE SURVIVOR

It may not be as tough as having to play a semifinal and a final on the same day, as was the case in the North Carolina public-school title, but Durham (N.C.) Academy truly earned its fourth straight North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association championship with a 2-1 overtime win over Charlotte (N.C.) Latin.

The Cavaliers got the game-winner in the second overtime on a Hannah Cohen goal. It was the second straight day in which Durham had played a one-goal game. But it had not been an ordinary one-goal game; it was a 1-0 shutout of long-time rival Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School.

"They had nothing left," said Durham head coach Judy Chandler to the Durham Herald-Sun. "It game down to who wanted and who had enough to put it in the goal at the end of the game. They now have a new appreciation for leaving it all out on the field.

Charlotte Latin had its own tough match before the final, shocking top-seeded Greensboro (N.C.) Day 2-1 in the other semifinal.

EAST CHAPEL HILL WINS INAUGURAL EAST-WEST PUBLIC SCHOOL FINAL

East Chapel Hill (N.C.) had to take a different road to winning the postseason tournament laid out for the state's public school teams.

Instead of putting all of the public-school teams in one bracket, the 2004 tournament was set up as an East vs. West format, which not only guaranteed one of the five western high schools a state finals berth, but also guaranteed that the east bracket would be a lot more difficult. Public-school field hockey in North Carolina began with the schools in Chapel Hill and Durham, and only recently has spread along I-85 towards Winston-Salem and Asheville.

But it didn't matter to the Wildcats, who recorded consecutive 7-0 wins in the semifinals and finals, which were played the same day. Forward Elizabeth Williams had four goals in the shutout win over Durham Jordan (N.C.), and added two more in the final over Winston-Salem Mount Tabor (N.C.). It was the fourth straight state title for East Chapel Hill.

"It's really awesome to have gone 4-for-4 in my high school career," Williams tells The Durham Herald-Sun. "Our whole team, we worked really hard for this all year. Our team is so deep. We had so many talented players. Today, we showed that we don't rely on one or two superstars."

WILD ECH WINS AN EVEN WILDER SHOWDOWN

Video highlights of North Carolina field hockey should obviously include talented athletes and great college dynasties. But somewhere on the DVD, you have to slip in the final two minutes of the 2004 match between East Chapel Hill (N.C.) and Durham (N.C.) Academy.

Why? Catherine Hildago tied the match between these two powerhouse teams at 1-1 with a scant 1:05 left to play. The Wildcats then took the ball up the field and earned a corner.

The stage was set. Sophomore forward Lauren Jackson met the ball in the midst of a rugby scrum and scored with 10 seconds left.

"After they scored, we were like, 'There's still some time left,' " Jackson tells The Herald-Sun. "I think we've really learned how to deal with pressure."

EAST CHAPEL HILL LEARNS VALUABLE LESSONS IN SUN DEVIL TOURNEY

Meghan Cullen was red in the face, and her cheeks were moist. But the goalkeeper for East Chapel Hill (N.C.) was happy, not sad, after her Wildcats took the second-place trophy at the 12th annual Sun Devil Invitation at the Olympic Training Center in Virginia Beach, Va.

"It was really intense," Cullen says. "We've been such a good team the last couple of years that I don't really get a lot of action. It's really good to get experience like this.

Why was Cullen so happy and relieved? Consider the day that the team endured.

East Chapel Hill, as well as the other 15 teams in the invitational, had to play three games. But for the Wildcats, No. 4 in the 2004 TopOfTheCircle.com preseason national rankings, their road to the trophy was extraordinarily bumpy.

ECH met defending Virginia state champion Fairfax W.T. Woodson and won in penalty strokes. A few hours later, the Cats met up with Virginia state runner-up Virginia Beach Princess Anne. The Cavaliers spotted East Chapel Hill three goals, only to level the match in the final minute, sending the match to penalty strokes, where only a fifth-round save gave the visitors a 4-3 stroke shootout win.

Awaiting in the final, however, was the team that had all of the Olympic Training Center aflutter. The Saints of St. Mary's School of Johannesburg, South Africa had come into the tournament having played friendlies in New Jersey, Maryland, and Richmond on the way to the tournament, and immediately impacted the Sun Devil Tournament with a 6-0 win in a first-round match against Virginia Beach Tallwood (Va.).

Shutout wins over Stafford (Va.) and Norfolk Maury (Va.) ensued before the match against ECH.

Playing perhaps the most impressive opponent ever pitted against a North Carolina scholastic team, St. Mary's used skill, speed, and the attacking presence of Shelley Russell to take a 2-0 win.

Russell, the team's center-forward, flummoxed the East Chapel Hill defense by attacking the left side, including several excellent maneuvers in the left-wing second goal area.

"I found myself getting into some very little 'stuck' places," Russell says. "They closed us down very well."

East Chapel Hill and Cullen covered nicely until the game's 18th minute, when Russell stole the ball and converted a breakaway. Shortly before the close of the first half, Russell rescued the ball from leaving the circle and popped it to Roxanne Turner, whose blast found wood.

The Wildcats, despite being outshot 15-0 in the final, never quit. Attacking midfielder Michelle Kasold and right wing Elizabeth Williams created good possession at times, but the Saints' defense, led by sweeper Vanessa Van Der Heever, was extremely strong in front of goalkeeper Peta-Leigh Dakyns.

"We went out there with a three-pronged tactical strategy," said East Chapel Hill coach Donnae Farrington. "They went out and executed it, and won two matches, but we didn't get the third. But it'll go like that. It was a good match; it was a very good team we played against. It's a rare thing to play against an international opponent."

Kentucky

KENTUCKY COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL CLIMBS THE MOUNTAIN

When Louisville Kentucky Country Day (Ky.) came back from the Gateway Classic having hung tough in a pool with Lake Forest (Ill.), St. Louis John Burroughs (Mo.), and St. Louis St. Joseph's (Mo.), you probably got the idea that the team would be one to reckon with in 2004.

And the Bearcats proved it by beating undefeated Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) 2-0 in the state final match.

But consider what the nine KCD seniors on the team had to endure. Just before their junior year, teammate Jamie Parsley was killed by a drunk driver in Louisville, which led to a $21 million judgment against a national restaurant chain.

And before the 2004 season, Mary Henry suffered a season-ending knee injury.

But Kentucky Country Day kept in the headwaters of the race for the higher seeds in the state tournament, and found its championship form right from their first-round game with Louisville St. Francis (Ky.) in a 7-0 win, a game played just five days after losing their regular-season finale to, of all teams, Sacred Heart.

"I'm in shock," senior Tess Whittle told The Louisville Courier-Journal. "Our record wasn't as good as any of the other teams. We were the underdogs, and it feels great to come out here and win."

Bennett Sumner had the opener in the dying minutes of the first half, and Courtney Plaster's corner goal halfway through the second term sealed matters.

This feels so awesome," head coach Katie Deskins told The Courier-Journal. "We had some tough times this year, but I'm just so happy right now. These girls have worked so hard, and they deserve this."

Kentucky Country Day School, which finished with a 13-6 record, won its first title since 1989.

"It's really a dream come true after what these girls have been through," Deskins said after the match. "We kind of had a turning point in the middle of the year. We had some team issues and we worked those out, and these girls have just come together."

PRESSURE? WHAT PRESSURE?

Sometimes being new to a particular endeavor makes you immune to the jitters of a new experience.

Take what happened to Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.) and its improbable run to the championship of the Apple Tournament.

The Valkyries have a first-year coach in Liz Lewis, who had to steer her team through the heat and the pressure of a single-elimination tournament that is the traditional kickoff to competitive scholastic field hockey in the United States.

But consider that the opposition in the championship final was defending state champion Louisville Assumption, and that the game was to be decided by penalty strokes -- with goalkeeper Brittany Miller in between the pipes in her first week as the starter.

"Brittany played great throughout the entire tournament," Lewis tells The Louisville Courier-Journal. "She proved today what an awesome goalie she is already, and she still has so much untapped talent."

She stuffed three Assumption flickers as Sacred Heart took a 3-1 stroke-off win after the teams drew at 2-all after 70 minutes.

"The coaches just told me to think of it as practice," said Miller. "So I thought of it as practice. I knew what I had to do, and I did it."

It was Sacred Heart's first Apple title since 1997.

For last year's notes, click here.