Birmingham United Girls Lacrosse Wins 15-14 Thriller Over Grosse Pointe South

TROY – The Birmingham United girls varsity lacrosse team is making coach Jennifer Dunbar sweat a little bit in the Division 1 playoffs this year.

Birmingham won a 15-14 thriller over Grosse Pointe South Wednesday in the regional semifinals with a goal in the final 90 seconds. It was the team’s second consecutive regionals game decided by a single goal. The opening round also went down to the wire with Birmingham beating Lahser 13-12.

“That’s two in a row, it’s a little rough,” Dunbar said, laughing. “South really brought it to us. They knew it could be the end of their season and they came out and played hard. I’m glad we kept our composure at the end.” 

Grosse Pointe tied the score at 14-14 with 1:38 left in the game. Chelsea Merrill scored her first goal to even things up, but Dunbar’s team wasn’t rattled.

Carly Signorello knocked the ensuing faceoff right to Kathy Quigley, who quickly ran the ball up the field. The sophomore made it behind the Blue Devils net and looked around for an open teammate. When a defender moved out of the way, Quigley quickly decided to run in front of the goal and take the shot herself.

And it worked. Quigley scored the game-winner with only 1:17 left on the clock.

“I saw the girl run the other way,“ Quigley said. “I saw the open net and thought what better chance than this? I took it and it went in.”

The win helped avenge Birmingham’s loss last year in the regional semifinals to Grosse Pointe South. The Blue Devils won 7-6 and Quigley didn’t want to go through another heartbreaking loss. 

“That was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had,” Quigley said. “I was just thinking we’ve worked really hard this season and I was not going to let it end with that kind of loss.” 

The entire game was a back-and-forth affair. Grosse Pointe South started off hot by scoring the first four goals of the game while Birmingham finished the first half strong with a 5-0 run. Gretchen Geist started the run with back-to-back goals in just 30 seconds.

“I’d say about 10 minutes left to go in the first half, we really stepped up our intensity on defense and organized ourselves better,” Dunbar said. “We had to kind of counterbalance the momentum they created at the beginning." 

The Blue Devils made some adjustments at halftime and tied the game at 12-12 midway through the second half, but Birmingham never trailed. Signorello scored twice in the final 10 minutes to help keep her team in control.

Birmingham’s win sets up a regional final game against Marian on Friday night at Troy (7 p.m.). Marian advanced in the later game over Grosse Pointe North 13-6. Last year the two teams played in the opening round of regionals and Birmingham advanced 16-13.

It should be a heated matchup with both teams looking like strong contenders for a state championship.

“We’re not going to give up, we’re dedicated to win state, that’s our goal,” Quigley said