Los Alamitos earns another shot at Division 1 title

ALISO VIEJO – The Los Alamitos girls lacrosse team will have a chance to go for its third consecutive Division 1 South title.

The No. 2-seeded Griffins overcame an early three-goal deficit to defeat No. 3 Beckman, 19-13, on Saturday night in the day’s second semifinal match at Aliso Niguel High.

The Griffins (17-3) will take on No. 5 seeded Santa Margarita in the finals Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Mission Viejo High.

“It’s so exciting, this is my first year, but for a couple of the girls it’s the third time they’ve been there,” Los Alamitos coach Liz Connelly said. “It’s a close-knit group and a really fun group and they have worked so hard.”

Los Alamitos got a strong offensive performance from Torrey Bailey, who scored six goals and had one assist. Allie Conrad had five goals and Lauren Actkinson and Melissa Hastie added three goals each for the Griffins, who led, 9-7 at halftime.

Connelly said it was the defense that provided the difference in defeating Beckman (16-3).

“My entire unit played the best team defense I’ve seen all year,” Connelly said. “The intensity was out of the roof. All the girls were working really hard.”

Julie Crowell added two goals and seven assists while goalie Emily Alpaugh had 15 saves.

Beckman coach Tom Messmer was also pleased with his squad’s effort.

“I think this was as good as we’ve played all year,” Messmer said. “It was very much a possession game. We probably had the same percentage of possessions in the first half, but they won three of the first four draws in the second half.

“When you have two teams like this, possession off the draw is important.”

Hanna Leonard, Kati Miller and Allie Lehner had three goals each for Beckman. Lehner also had four assists. Abbey Messmer added two goals and one assist.

“I was really proud of these girls,” Messmer said.