Twelve (12) Northwest teams
traveled to Palo Alto, CA to participate in the
annual Western States Tournament the weekend of
April 5th & 6th. Forty-three (43) high school and
women�s lacrosse teams from around the west competed
during the weekend under blue, sunny skies on the
perfectly manicured fields of Stanford
University�coming off three weeks of playing in the
mud, rain and hail this is about as close to
lacrosse nirvana as it gets for many of the
northwest athletes.
The Panthers brought both their A and B teams to the
tournament this year. "The A team arrived
focused, positive and physically ready to defend
their under-dog championship of the 2002 tournament"
said Steph Cone, coach of Panthers A. The
Panthers went undefeated in their pool Saturday
earning wins against River City 15-2, Holy Names
Academy 12-0 and Tomahawks 17-4. On Sunday
Panthers A were scheduled to compete against their
sisters Panthers B. That win earned them in a
spot in the semi-finals against Holy Names.
The Panthers and Holy Names faced each other in the
2002 semi-finals with Panthers winning to move on to
beat Bainbridge in the finals.
Following a 14-0 victory over Holy Names the
Panthers faced West Linn Lions, the 2002 Oregon
State champions who beat out Bainbridge Island in
the semis by one goal. The Panthers immediately
found some net with a quick stick goal but the Lions
stayed on their tail goal for goal during the half
which ended with a 4 goal tie. Both teams were
feeling the effects of the five previous games but
battled it out to the end winning 7-6.
Coach Cone commented that it was "exciting to see
the breadth of talent coming from the Oregon team,
lacrosse is even younger in OR than it is in WA and
to see this kind of top-notch talent was very
impressive."
Click here to learn more about the
Panthers Lacrosse Club
