It started with a major gut punch: 30 players losing their coach just a few weeks before the start of the season.
It ended with those same 30 players storming the field at the University of Denver as Class 5A state champions.
The Valor Christian girls lacrosse team, whose previous coach resigned in February, applied the sweetest of exclamation points to its season on May 16 at Peter Barton Stadium — by beating ThunderRidge 12-8 under the lights for the program’s first state title.
After coming so close so many times — the Eagles lost in the 2021 and 2022 championship games and in the semifinal round the last two years — they finally knocked down the door with a 26-year-old coach leading the way.
Take that, preseason gut punch.
“One of our goals going into the game was being able to adjust and adapt to everything ThunderRidge threw at us,” said Sam Geiersbach, who was officially announced as the Eagles’ coach on Feb. 22, a mere 12 days before their first game. “They gave us a good battle. I’m proud of [my team for battling and persevering].”
Adjust and adapt — the Eagles were forced to do it before the season began, and now, down 7-3 to ThunderRidge in the second quarter, Geiersbach needed them to do it one more time.
The Grizzlies — Rocquette Allen (four goals) and Lynsey Dondero (three), in particular — had owned the early moments of the game. Morgan Gunnersen and the Bigelow sisters, junior Leele and sophomore Gia, were Valor’s (17-1) goal scorers in the opening quarter.
An early four-goal hole — another gut punch.
Geiersbach called a timeout. Adjustments needed to be made.
“Coach pulled us in and said, ‘This is not how we play. We need to lock it in,’” Leele Bigelow said. “I wrote my brother’s and sister’s names on my wrist before the game. I looked down and saw their names and told myself, ‘We need to lock it in.’ And once my sister and I hit that switch, it’s all gas and no brakes. I felt the energy shift right away.”
Indeed, it was nothing but gas from there for the top-seeded Eagles.
Olivia Laselle scored from right outside the crease and Gunnersen skipped a shot past Grizzlies (15-3) goalie Serena Reiter to make it a two-score game midway through the second quarter.
A pair of goals from the elder Bigelow — one with 26 seconds left in the half and another just 18 ticks later — evened the score.
“A lot of times this season, we’ve gotten into a little bit of a rut, whether it be a first-quarter rut or a third-quarter rut,” Geiersbach said. “The whole season teaches you things. You have to take something away from each game, so I’m really happy we were able to [learn how to play through adversity].”
The opening faceoff of the second half was controlled by the younger Bigelow, who raced 40 yards and scored to give Valor its first lead of the game at 8-7.
Allen’s fifth and last goal, 35 seconds later, leveled the score, but ThunderRidge, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, was held scoreless the rest of the way while Laselle scored twice more and Gunnersen and Micki Tanella each added a goal.
“We decided we were going to play as a team and for each other because we’d come so far this year and battled through so much adversity,” senior attacker Amanda Stevens said. “We knew we could pull through. We looked left and right and were ready to play for our sisters.”
Stevens was down for several minutes after an early collision in front of the Grizzlies’ cage and had to be helped to the sideline.
She was a freshman on the 2022 team that lost 13-9 to Colorado Academy in the state championship game. She remembers the pain of that one.
There was no way she was going to be kept off the field against the Grizzlies. She returned and finished with two assists — a great way to end her high school career before heading off to Stanford.
“Our main goal all year has been to trust and believe in ourselves,” Geiersbach said. “I always say, ‘Some other teams have a team of maybe three or four. We have a team of 30.’ This year, they did an awesome job of trusting the team as a whole.
“I’m so proud of them. They knew they could do it.”