Panthers look to avenge early season losses in states
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton Day School girls’ lacrosse team wouldn’t mind setting up a rematch of the whole week of April 13.
The sixth-seeded Panthers took a step in that direction by avenging one of their four losses on the season with an 8-7 overtime win over third-seeded Peddie in the Prep A quarterfinals on Tuesday.
With the win, PDS set up a rematch with second-seeded Lawrenceville, an 18-9 victor in the teams’ first meeting, in a game scheduled for Thursday. With a win and a Hun upset of top-seeded Oak Knoll, there’s the chance to avenge all three of their losses from the April 13th week with a win in the state championship Monday. Hun advanced to Thursday’s semifinal with a 19-8 win over Kent Place on Tuesday behind seven goals from Bis Fries.
"I’ll take a rematch," said PDS head coach Jill Thomas, whose team improved to 10-4 with Tuesday’s win over Peddie. "As opposed to the alternative of not playing anymore. We have an opportunity and that’s how we have to look at it. We got our 10th win and got back-to-back wins against quality, quality programs. We have to continue to know what we’re playing against and go out and execute."
PDS gained momentum for the Prep A tournament with a 9-6 win over Notre Dame last Friday. The Panthers rode that feeling into the Peddie game.
"I think we had the feeling we could do it," Thomas said. "We lost to them the first time, 11-9. We didn’t feel like we played very well. We had Lawrenceville, Peddie and Hun all in a row in a week. We lost to Hun, then we lost to Lawrenceville and we thought for sure we could get one of them.
"We believed we could this time," she added. "Our win against Notre Dame on Friday was huge. That made believers of everybody. I think we just were a team. We played team D’. We played team offense. It just made sense. We’ve been stressing it all year and it worked. When something works and you come out on top, you can stress it more."
It took a team effort for the Panthers to get by Peddie, which held a 4-3 halftime lead and took a 5-3 lead minutes into the second half. But the Panthers answered with three straight goals to show they weren’t giving in. The game remained back-and-forth, but the Panthers put the clamps on over the final 15 minutes of the game.
"With 2:10 left, Keely Langdon scored to tie it up," Thomas said. "She just took the ball down and battled and got it in. Then we possessed the ball. We took a number of shots to win it. It went to overtime and Meg (Kerwin) scored with 1:08 to go in the first overtime. We possessed the ball from then on."
Kerwin led the Panthers with three goals. PDS also got stellar goal-tending from Maddie Ferguson, who made a confidence-building save seconds before halftime and another game-sealing one in overtime.
"Maddie made another stuff save, an out-of-her-mind save," Thomas said, "and from that point on, the ball did not cross midfield."
The win set up a rematch with Lawrenceville and a chance at more vengeance, this time for a trip to the state final. PDS showed already once that it has moved in the right direction since one rough week in April. Peddie was the first to find out.
"We knew it was a long time since we lost to them," Thomas said. "We’ve gotten better. We’ve gotten better at little things. To get a big win at home against Notre Dame, who comes in here at 10-2, I think it solidified us as a team. I think we went over there with the right attitude. It was a battle."

