A 6-0 second-half run gave the Spartanburg girls lacrosse team the cushion it needed to crush Lexington’s back-to-back championship dreams.

The Wildcats came into Saturday’s 5A Division I championship game riding a 15-game win streak. The title match was billed as a revenge game for both teams, as Lexington’s last loss came against the Vikings, and Spartanburg fell to the Wildcats in the 2025 championship. 

After both teams exchanged blows at the start, Spartanburg came out in the third and fourth quarters and found the gaps in Lexington’s defense to secure an 8-4 win. 

Lexington failed to respond, often controlling the ball for minutes at a time without a shot on goal. 

“They just got experience, and they have a great program as far as coaching goes,” Lexington head coach Tiffany Tortorello said. “They're very disciplined, and I think we gave them a different game than what they probably expected us to do. It was a different game completely for us and for them compared to the first game we played this season.”

The first meeting this season featured a lot more offense as the Vikings earned a 17-10 win. Defense ruled the rematch, with both teams tied at two going into halftime. 

Each team had one goal in the first two quarters. Spartanburg scored first on a shot from Evers Morris. Three minutes later, Charleigh Taylor fought through contact and evened the score. 

Addie Usry put the Vikings back on top two minutes into the second quarter, but Lexington again responded. Senior Lily Sundell scored her final goal in a Wildcat uniform on a free possession shot after a Spartanburg foul. 

Sundell was the team’s only senior and a huge reason for Lexington’s success and rapid development. 

“[Lily] has been an awesome addition to this program,” Tortorello said. “She is the heartbeat of our team, and she's definitely stepped up to make sure everyone's on the same page as her, same effort, same attitude and same accomplishment mindset.”

Coming out of the break, Lexington took its only lead of the game. McKenna Bowen scored her first of two goals to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead. 

From there though, Spartanburg ran away with the game. Usry tied the game again less than a minute after Bowen’s goal. Virginia Delaney snatched the lead back for the Vikings with another goal, forcing Lexington to take a timeout. 

With the final second of the third quarter ticking away, Usry secured herself a hat trick and extended the Spartanburg run to 3-0. 

Up 5-3 entering the fourth quarter, the Vikings kept their foot on the gas and punched in three more goals before Lexington could respond.

“We turned the ball over quite a bit, making passes we don’t typically make,” Tortorello said. “The pressure and the intensity were up. A lot of emotions, a lot of back-and-forth. I think it was just making those small errors and trying to overcome them.”

Lexington finally put an end to the Spartanburg run as Bowen scored her second goal of the game. However, it was too little, too late, as there was under a minute left in the game, and the Wildcats trailed 8-4. 

When the final buzzer blared, an elated Spartanburg team stormed the field, while the disappointed Wildcats players huddled together to console each other. 

While it was not the outcome the team wanted, Tortorello said this was a good learning experience for the girls. With all but Sundell able to return, this Wildcat squad has a good shot to make it back next year. 

“We fought as a team, and the girls absolutely did way more than anybody expected them to do all season,” Tortorello said. “You don’t have to be here. You get to be here. I think it was an eye-opener for all of our girls. Even with losing what we lost last year, we got to be here again. We got our way back to the top. We're here, we were ready to go, and we can do it again next year.”