By Michael Lindsay
A season of destiny for the Cookeville Lady Cavalier lacrosse team will conclude on Tennessee’s biggest stage Saturday morning as the Lady Cavs will face Ravenwood in the state championship following their 18-14 semifinal victory at Seymour on Friday.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” said Lady Cavalier head coach Resa Roberts. “They’ve worked so hard for tonight, and it was amazing to watch all of the technical things that we’ve worked on in practice come together on the field.”
Saturday’s state championship appearance will be the first in program history as Cookeville is set to face top-ranked Ravenwood.
Bella Roberts led Cookeville with 9 goals on a 100% shooting percentage, followed by Anzly Roberts and Liza Buckner with 3 goals each.
Ryan Smith scored 2 goals along with 1 from Molly Smith. Keeper Sally Marcum had 6 saves in the victory.
“I want to give a shoutout to our defense,” coach Roberts said. “Brookelyn Walls, Addison Bray and Ruby Thurman were a brick wall on defense. They played amazing tonight.”
A neck-and-neck first half saw Cookeville jump out to a quick 5-1 lead with 19:24 left in the period.
Seymour recovered with a quick 4-0 run over the next 5:30 to tie the game at 5 with 13:58 left in the opening half. Cookeville withstood the Lady Eagle run as back-to-back goals from Bella and Anzly Roberts gave the Lady Cavs a 7-5 lead with 12:40 left in the period.
Seymour stayed within striking distance as the Lady Eagles tied the contest 3 times in the final 10:45 of the first half. A Liza Buckner goal with 8.3 seconds left in the opening period put the Lady Cavaliers ahead 10-9 going into the halftime break.
The Lady Cavaliers never trailed in the first half despite Seymour tying the game 4 times.
“At first, I think we had a little case of nerves; I don’t think we’ve ever won on this field,” coach Roberts said. “This is the farthest this team’s ever been, and they felt like there was a lot riding on their shoulders. Once they got nerves out of the way, they were able to settle down and play their game.”
Cookeville’s halftime speech must’ve worked as the Lady Cavaliers opened the second half on a commanding 7-1 run over the first 19 minutes of the second half to take a 17-10 lead over Seymour with 7:07 remaining.
Cookeville held an 18-12 advantage with 4:23 remaining and kept Seymour out of the net for the next 2:30 before the Lady Eagles tacked on two goals in the final 1:53, making the final score 18-14 in favor of Cookeville.
“When we got up 6 goals with just a few minutes left on the clock, I realized there was probably no way they could overcome that,” coach Roberts said. “The stress just melted off and it was pure joy from that point.”
The semifinal victory over Seymour sets up one last dance for the Lady Cavaliers as they’re scheduled to face #1-ranked Ravenwood Saturday morning at 11 am EST (10 CST) in the state girls lacrosse championship game at Seymour High School.
“We’ve prepped for this all season,” Roberts said. “It’s a team we’ve played before, and I think that will help our nerves and being prepared. We came up short last time, but we know what our weaknesses were and we have a game plan. Hopefully, we come settled and ready to play.”
