Oakton’s girls lacrosse team watched its best player trudge solemnly to the bench, her season over a good 30 minutes before it was supposed to be.
It was the first true bout of adversity the Cougars had endured all spring. The loss of junior midfielder Ashley Kimener, the Northern Region player of the year, to a second yellow card with six minutes left in the first half could have been their undoing. Instead, it was the impetus to another Group AAA state championship.
Fourth-ranked Oakton (18-1) added its second state championship banner to the Concorde District and Northern Region ones it earned last month, holding off a furious rally by No. 10 W.T. Woodson (14-7) in the second half of Saturday’s 12-10 victory at Westfield.
“I was upset for a while because it was such a bad break to get two yellow cards like that,” said Kimener. “I’m not used to watching games from the sidelines. But I knew the girls had enough faith in themselves that we would still win it.”
Kimener didn’t have many doubts because the Cougars have an almost unlimited number of players capable of raising their games. Senior midfielder Hillary Freund, the top goal-scorer in the region final vs. Robinson, was at it again with five goals in the state championship. Freund, Kimener and senior attack Victoria Cable all topped 75 points on the season.
But it was a defense led by the steady Caity Jones and first-year player Ashley Abed that was under the gun in the final minutes and in the end came through for Oakton.
“They’re both basketball players and they both know how to defend,” said Kimener. “And they played awesome in the second half to keep us ahead. We couldn’t have won this year without them.”
