Los Alamitos girls still perfect, still lacrosse champions

PLACENTIA - Los Alamitos' girls lacrosse team left little doubt about which team is the best in Southern California.

The Griffins capped their second consecutive perfect season by defeating North Division champion Redondo Union, 24-7, in the U.S. Lacrosse Southern California Division I finals Friday night at Valencia High.

The Griffins (21-0) led at halftime, 11-6, then scored eight consecutive goals to start the second half and pull away to their second straight Southern California title.

Click here to see photos from the Southern California championship games.

"I am super-excited and I am so proud of this senior class," Los Alamitos coach Meredith Meyran said. "We had 10 seniors. They all started together four years ago, and we've come a long way in the last four years and I am so excited for them."

One of the seniors, Shaina Denny, led the way with six goals. Senior Tracy Paulson and freshman Julie Crowell had five goals each for Los Alamitos, which won the Orange County crown on Tuesday.

Senior Ashley Actkinson added two goals for Los Alamitos, which has a 41-game winning streak over the past two seasons.

Los Alamitos led from the start and moved out to a five-goal lead on a goal by Crowell with 26.9 seconds left in the first half.

Los Alamitos was in control in the first half, but stepped up its play a notch in the first 14 minutes of the second half ending any upset hopes by Redondo (17-3).

"We just looked at the clock and said to them, 'there's 25 minutes left in your high school career, how do you want to end it?' " Meyran said. "And they answered that question.

"Redondo is a good team, but we were kind of relentless today and we weren't going to stop, we weren't going to quit."

Leading the way was Denny, who is headed to Whittier College to play lacrosse next year.

"It was a great game," Denny said. "We just wanted to execute all our plays like we've been doing all year and basically, we did the job. It all worked out.

"I'm really proud of our team. We've been working hard all season and everyone put a lot of heart into it this season and we made it happen, back to back."

Redondo, the top-seeded team from the North Division, was led by junior Julia Denney, who had four goals.

Los Alamitos goalkeeper Natalie Richards had another solid game with nine saves.