Lakeland High School’s field hockey season came to an end Wednesday after a 4-1 loss to York High School in the semifinals of the conference tournament.

The Lady Cavs took on York at Bailey Field in their only game of the Conference 27 tournament. Lakeland was the No. 3 seed, with York seeded at No. 2. Bailey field is the home field for York, and its artificial turf is a different playing surface than Lakeland is used to.

“They gave 100 percent,” LHS coach Cortney Parker said. “They gave all they had tonight. It was just unfortunate that we could not come out on top.”

The Lady Cavs played well for most of the first half, keeping the score tied at 0-0 until York ran off with three goals. At halftime, the score was 3-0. LHS didn’t get their only goal until the second half, and it was scored by Maddy Carr.

During the game, the Lady Cavs had two scores called back for different reasons which could have changed momentum in the Lakeland’s favor. Despite only scoring one goal, the Lady Cavs were able to move the ball during the game to give themselves opportunities to make things happen.

“I felt we played well,” Carr said of the Lady Cavs effort. “We were making runs, and we played very hard. It was a tough game.”

“We were beat by a very good team,” teammate Sydney Beale said. “We played hard and fought hard.”

Before the conference tournament, LHS felt it was peaking at the right time. Of their last four regular-season games, three were shutouts. Lakeland had opportunities to score but couldn’t capitalize when they needed to.

The Lady Cavs finish the year with a 9-8 record, including the playoff loss.

Parker considers this year as something of a rebuilding year. The team came into the season having graduated six seniors. Four more seniors will graduates this year, but the team has six sophomores returning next year.

Finishing goals against the bigger schools is one improvement the coach hopes to make for next season.

“We had a lot of games this season where we maybe should have won,” Parker said. “But it’s good for the younger players to go through those difficult games, because it gives them experience for the next season. Even though losing our seniors will hurt, we have a lot of young talent coming up. I’m looking forward to working with them.”

“We all enjoyed this season,” Carr said. “We all love each other like a family, and we’ve learned new things this season that we can carry on. I’m very proud of us this season, even if it was cut shorter than we would have liked it to.”

Lakeland 1, York 4

L- Maddy Carr