VES sweeps Glass with overtime victory

By Ted Allen

Published: April 17, 2008

Virginia Episcopal School goalkeeper Sarah Gencarelli came out of the cage with confidence, the ball cradled in the net of her stick with the Bishops and host E.C. Glass knotted at 13 in overtime.
She sent a long outlet pass to top scoring threat Cat Kelley well beyond midfield, where she picked up the ground ball and fed Sydna Mundy in the left of the circle for what proved to be the game-winning goal in Thursday night’s 15-13 triumph.
Gencarelli finished with 24 saves and Kelley led all scorers with seven goals and two assists to help the Bishops (7-5) overcome an early 6-2 deficit and sweep their season series with the Hilltoppers (2-7) for the second year in a row.
“It was a huge win for us,” VES coach Alaina Anderson said. “Gencarelli played great in goal.”
“She had some amazing saves,” Kelley added. “That really helped us out.”
Kelley had forced the two three-minute overtime periods by netting her seventh score with a minute remaining in regulation. She worked from behind the goal before pivoting into the right crease, cutting between two defenders toward the cage, jumping up and finishing her shot past Glass goalkeeper Shelby Davies.
“That was a big shot,” Kelley said. “It was a good come-from-behind win for us.”
Kelley took all of the Bishops draws — the girls’ game’s equivalent of a faceoff — scoring back-to-back goals off two of them to tie the game at 11 with 11 minutes left in the second half.
Both times, she made long sprints upfield before threading tough-angled shots past Davies from in the left side of the circle.
“We focused on the draws,” Kelley said. “Once we tied them, it really turned the game around.”
The loss was an agonizing one for Glass, which is now 0-4 against its cross-town rival after losing second-half leads twice this spring. Once VES took the lead in the first OT, and padded it with a goal by Blake Koroneos after Diane Girling picked up a ground ball on attack, the Bishops were content to hold the ball and work it around the perimeter, running out the clock.
“We sort of fell apart at the end,” Hilltoppers coach Cara Leepson said. “We dominated with our set offense (in the first half, but) we need to work on our tight, attacking defense when they were holding the ball. We needed to bring the intensity up in overtime.”