The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-10)

D12 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022

DOUG KAPUSTIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Bishop Ireton’s Blaine Cosby (10) eludes a Marriotts Ridge defender and fires a shot into the net.

BY MICHAEL ERRIGO

The Sidwell Friends girls’ bas-
ketball team ended its season
hundreds of miles from home,
doing what it had done so many
times before. In the final min-
utes of the inaugural State
Champions Invitational title
game Saturday in Tampa, the
Quakers held a comfortable lead
and pranced away from hacking
defenders in an attempt to drain

the clock.

At the final buzzer, they lifted

a golden trophy to celebrate one

last win and one last champion-

ship in a season stocked with

both.

The Quakers beat Florida’s

Lake Highland Prep, 50-39, to

win this new national tourna-

ment, an alternative to the Geico

Nationals. It was the Quakers’

third championship of the post-

season and the perfect closer to a

dominant 30-0 campaign.

“We wanted to go out strong,”

senior guard Kiki Rice said.

“Winning a national champion-

ship is something we set out to

do at the beginning of the year, so

it’s an amazing way to finish.”

The Sidwell boys’ team took

part in the same tournament,

falling to Florida’s Calvary Chris-

tian, 59-37, in a Thursday semifi-

nal.

The girls’ championship win

marked the end of a season that

will be remembered for some

time in D.C. area basketball

circles. With plenty of talent on

its roster, this Sidwell team

came into the winter carrying a

load of hype. But over four

dominant months, Coach Tami-

ka Dudley’s team found a way to

exceed expectations to an al-

most unimaginable degree. In

two transformative seasons, the

Quakers went from a quiet but

consistent contender in the

area’s second-best private school

conference to a team widely

regarded as the best in the

country.

They left very little doubt as

they stormed through an ambi-

tious schedule, winning by an

average of 27.8 points. Even in

the season’s biggest moments,

the Quakers won with a surpris-

ing level of comfort. They beat

Texas powerhouse DeSoto by

18 points in their fifth game of

the season. They won the Inde-

pendent School League title by

34 and the D.C. State Athletic

Association championship by 28.

The team faced a stiffer test

Saturday as the Highlanders

kept things close early. The

Quakers even trailed at the end

of the first quarter. But they

settled in by the second half,

especially on the defensive end,

and led by multiple posses-

sions for much of the third and

fourth.

“When we’ve been in tough

situations before this, the de-

fense has been the catalyst,”

Dudley said. “The girls trust it,

and they believe in it. It’s been

the constant for us.”

Sidwell held Lake Highland to

just 31 percent shooting from the

field. On the other end, sopho-

more forward Kendall Dudley

led the way with 18 points and

eight rebounds. Junior Jadyn

Donovan added 15, and Rice had

10.

“We should be remembered as

a team that never wavered,” Rice

said. “If you look at our schedule,

we didn’t shy away from any kind

of competition and we always

went out there and competed....

I think we clearly demonstrated

we’re the No. 1 team in the

country.”

GIRLS’ STATE CHAMPIONS INVITATIONAL FINAL

Quakers wrap up perfect season with title at national tournament in Florida

SIDWELL FRIENDS 50,

LAKE HIGHLAND 39

BY KYLE MELNICK

Before every draw, girls’ la-
crosse players on the Bishop
Ireton sideline count down from
three and yell one of the pro-
gram’s mottos.
“You get the draw,” they say,
“you get the goal.”
That statement held true in
Ireton’s 11-10 win over Marriotts
Ridge on Saturday afternoon.
The Mustangs built a lead by
dominating possession for the
opening 30 minutes at Western
Regional Park in Woodbine, Md.
In the final 13 minutes, the
Cardinals won all but one draw
to rally from a four-goal deficit
and defeat one of Maryland’s top
public schools.
The sequence that instilled
belief in Ireton’s players came
with 13 minutes remaining. Mar-
riotts Ridge had taken an 8-4
lead moments earlier when Car-
dinals attacker Avery Darke con-
trolled a draw with one hand.

About 45 seconds later, senior

midfielder Maggie Gately scored.

“Any play,” Gately said, “can be

a big momentum change for us.”

Ireton (8-5) won four consecu-

tive Washington Catholic Athlet-

ic Conference titles between 2016

and 2019, fueled in large part by

its savvy in the draw circle.

Unlike in previous seasons, the

Alexandria program doesn’t fea-

ture one high-level prospect to

lean on for possession, so it

rotates draw specialists.

As Darke shined against Mar-

riotts Ridge (5-3), Ireton knotted

the score at eight with 8:50

remaining and grabbed its first

lead at 10-9 with 5:35 left.

“I’m not usually someone that

takes the draw, but I wasn’t

stressed, because I was like: ‘You

know what? If I don’t get the

draw, I’m confident that some-

one else on the circle will,’ ”

Darke said.

“Or if we don’t get it back, I

know that we’re going to play

good defense and get a turnover.”

That’s what happened when

Marriotts Ridge seized the draw

with just over 90 seconds re-

maining. Goalkeeper Madelyn

Deveans blocked a shot on a free

position, and Gately stole the ball

with 18 seconds remaining. The

Cardinals have thrived in close

games this month, having also

claimed one-goal victories over

Georgia power Milton and Char-

lottesville contender St. Anne’s-

Belfield.

Ireton’s players hope that com-

posure results in their fifth con-

secutive WCAC title next month

(the league canceled the past two

postseasons because of the pan-

demic). Gately learned about Ire-

ton through her sister, Anna

Cate, who graduated in 2019. The

Denver commit aspires to con-

tinue the program’s customs —

even if her second ring wouldn’t

match her sister’s four.

Meanwhile, fellow senior Ain-

sley Scruggs, who notched a hat

trick Saturday, hopes to exempli-

fy Ireton’s long-standing win-

ning culture for her freshman

sister, Isla.

“We even have more of a drive

this year, at least for the seniors

on the team,” Scruggs said, “be-

cause we lost two great years that

we could be continuing that

tradition.”

NONLEAGUE GIRLS’ L ACROSSE

Cardinals draw up big rally

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