San Marcos girls lacrosse’s historic season came to an end with a 14-9 loss to St. Margaret’s in the second round of the CIF-SS Div. 2 playoffs on Thursday in San Juan Capistrano.
The Royals finish the season with an overall record of 18-3 for the most wins in program history. They went undefeated in league play to earn their second straight Channel League title.
“This is not the result we wanted, but everyone played their hearts out and left it on the field,” San Marcos head coach Paul Ramsey said. “I’m extremely proud of our effort level and a lot of our execution in this pressure cooker, high-level game.
“I feel the experience of playing a lot of games at this level and making decisions at the tempo of a game like this are what we were missing, not effort and not heart. We had the effort and the heart.”
The Royals started fast, racing out to an early 3-0 lead before slowing down and clinging on to a 5-4 lead heading into the second.
St. Margaret’s found its groove in the second, overtaking San Marcos and taking an 8-6 advantage by halftime. The Tartans then won the second half, 6-3, to pull away for the win.
The 6-foot-2 duo of Scarlett Welsome and Grace Burke led the way for St. Margaret’s. Welcome scored eight goals while Burke dished out five assists.
“We knew going in that Burke and Welsome were the show for them, but even knowing it ahead of time, they were a tough combo for us to handle,” Ramsey said.
As for the Royals, freshman Victoria Aldana collected four goals and five assists to lead the offense. Meanwhile, Josephine Grossman tallied three goal,s and both Liv Plourde and Clara Stump scored once.