Pleasant Valley GLAX falls short, lose to Nazareth in EPC final
The Bears made a push in the second half, but their pursuit of a fifth-straight conference title fell short in the championship game.
NORTHAMPTON — What do you say to a team where winning is less of a goal, and more of an expectation? That was the challenge for Hanna Doerner after Pleasant Valley girls lacrosse lost the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Championship to Nazareth 10-8 Tuesday afternoon at Northampton High School. Pleasant Valley hadn't lost in the conference tournament since its best player, senior Rylee Rath, was in middle school, and the Bears just finished another regular season going undefeated in the EPC, which included a 10-6 win over the Blue Eagles.
It was uncharted territoy for everyone on the roster, but Doerner, knowing that PV has a district tournament game to prepare for, tried to give her team a positive dose of reality after the game. "Our season is not over," Doerner said regarding the message to the team. "A lot of them haven't lost in this game before today, but the other thing to remember is that, for a lot of them, this is their first time in this situation.
Most of our team are first-year varsity starters. "We just made too many mistakes and couldn't come up with the win. " Awards season: Jurasits sisters make 2026 All-EPC First Team, All-Monroe teams announced Pleasant Valley defintely felt the heat at halftime as Nazareth led 8-4 at the break.
Rath was almost exclusively responsible for the Bears' offense, scoring 3 of her team's goals in the first quarter and leading her team in scoring for the game. They did respond early in the second half, scoring three consecutive goals to cut the deficit to one. It also wasn't a shortage of chances — Pleasant Valley had a healthy amount of free positions with an opportunity to close the gap and possibly take the lead.