Madison Advances to First Ever State Final With 21-8 Win Over Osbourn Park

With a 21-8 victory Tuesday over Osbourn Park in the type of game that has come to define the Warhawk's season, the Madison Girls Lacrosse Team will advance to their first state final in school history.

After running roughshod over a pair of teams they had never faced before in the last two rounds of the tournament, the Madison Warhawks will face a familiar foe when they play for the Virginia AAA girls lacrosse championship on Saturday: Oakton.

“[We] really earned a spot this year,” said Northern Region POY Allison Hahn. “All the pieces have been there and it just came together.”

With their first ever Liberty District and Northern Region titles already on their resume, the Warhawks have easily dispatched the Cougars in their previous meetings – 23-15 in the regular season and 23-14 in the Northern Region championship. But Oakton is coming off a dominant 23-12 win over Chantilly in the first semifinal and has appeared to be peaking at just the right time.

Saturday’s final will Neither coach has made much of the family affair, and rightfully so, as their on-field talent has proven to be all that’s mattered this season. Still, Madison Coach Amanda, who started her coaching career as an assistant on Jean’s staff, thinks this time around will be just a bit different.

“There is some twinge of strangeness in having her as my opponent and now in the biggest tournament we’ve been in,” she said. “If I had to pick another team to be as successful, I would choose it to be hers. She taught me a lot about what I know, so it’s kind of a nice little symbol that we’re both here at the end.”

As for the game against Osbourn Park on Tuesday, it didn’t seem anything the Yellow Jackets could have done would be enough. Madison quickly grabbed a 6-1 lead and never let up. Nine different Warhawks scored, led by Hahn’s six points and Carly Frederick’s four goals. Taylor Rivera-Silva and Lindsey Beeman each made four saves while splitting time in net, and neither was troubled too much.

After building a 13-3 lead with just more than three minutes remaining in the first half, Madison earned a running clock that they never lost, and found time for some fun in the second half. Hahn attempted a behind the back shot and twice tried a hidden ball trick similar to the one the University of Maryland’s mens team used against North Carolina in the first round of last month’s NCAA tournament. None were successful, but Hahn said being able to relax and get creative has been key to Madison’s success.

“The first time was a complete fail,” she said of the move where she made it appear she was flipping a pass to a teammate, but actually catching the ball herself and making a cut to the goal. “The second time worked, but then I got fouled. It’s still a good play even if it doesn’t get the whole effect of being hidden. In the second half, we started having a little more fun, we started trying different kinds of shots and we started to relax a little more. But I think it’s possible for us to play like that the whole game, even if it’s close.”

Though close games have been scarce for Madison, lacrosse fans can only hope that playing for a state championship would elicit the best from both teams.

The state championship game will be at 6 p.m. at Westfield.