Yorktown’s Tierney Patton, left, reaches in to defend against Mount Vernon’s Lizzy Sagar during the National District field hockey championship game on Oct. 22 at MVHS. Photo by Louise Krafft.
As 9 p.m. approached, members of the Yorktown field hockey team remained huddled on the sideline at Mount Vernon High School long after Monday’s National District field hockey tournament final had ended. Players critiqued their performance that evening and head coach Stephanie DuVall reminded the Patriots there was still more field hockey to be played.
Mount Vernon defeated Yorktown, 2-0, on Oct. 22 to capture its third district championship in the last four seasons. Regardless of the outcome, the fact Yorktown had an opportunity to play for a district title after graduating 12 seniors from last year’s team had DuVall feeling the Patriots overachieved.
"I thought going into this season it would be more of a rebuilding year," she said. "I think only because of how hard they worked did it end up surpassing my expectations for this year."
Yorktown entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Patriots secured a berth in the regional tournament by defeating Stuart, 4-0, in the first round on Oct. 16. The following night, Yorktown defeated defending district champion Washington-Lee, 2-1, in overtime to earn its first trip to the district title game since 2008.
The district championship game was scheduled for Saturday, but moved to Monday due to poor field conditions at MVHS. Yorktown faced a Mount Vernon team that entered the contest with a 14-3-1 record, was undefeated against district competition and had allowed only six goals all year, including just one against district foes.
Yorktown faced a two-goal deficit at halftime and never recovered.
"Yorktown has not reached the district finals since 2008 so it’s a great accomplishment as a team to make it here," Yorktown senior Jennie Basile said. "I think a lot of people underestimated us because we lost 12 seniors last year, so to make it here and to work really hard, I’m proud of my team as a whole."
"I thought going into this season it would be more of a rebuilding year. I think only because of how hard they worked did it end up surpassing my expectations for this year."
— Yorktown field hockey coach Stephanie DuVall
Mount Vernon senior Gabby Ocker scored both goals for the Majors, who have reached the championship game each of the last four seasons.
"At the beginning of the season, our team goal was to dominate and that’s what we did," Ocker said. "We dominated the district [and] we dominated this game because of all the preparation we had."
The loss set up a meeting with Herndon, the Concorde District’s No. 3 seed, in the first round of the Northern Region tournament on Tuesday at Yorktown High School. Herndon won the game, 1-0, ending Yorktown's season.
All-National District first- and second-team members were honored at halftime of the district championship game.
Yorktown senior midfielder Basile, senior forward Tierney Patton, senior forward Carolanne Wilson and senior defender Sophie Frank each earned first-team accolades. Sophomore midfielder Margaret Doyle, senior defender Erika Vikander and junior defender Mary Cowden were members of the second team.