ADDISON:  The Varsity Girls Soccer team faced off against Ursuline Academy on Friday afternoon in the TAPPS Division 1 Semi-Finals, hosted by TCA Addison.  After a close 1-0 win over Nolan Catholic in the Regional round on Wednesday last week, the Lady Cards found themselves facing an old playoff nemesis in the Bears once again.  Ursuline has gotten the better of John Paul II in recent years, although the Lady Cardinals stunned them in the playoffs as recently as 2019, a 2-1 win for JPII in the Regionals.  This season during district play, the two teams needed extra time and a shootout to determine a winner during both of their games.  Ursuline defeated JPII 2-1 in extra time on January 17th, and again in a penalty kick shootout on February 10th.  

It's always tough to beat a team three times, or so they say.  John Paul II took some hard lessons from its pair of regular season losses to Ursuline and applied them in the postseason.  In Friday's Semi-Final fixture, the Bears opened the scoring in the 19th minute on a free kick set piece from 45 yards out.  Lady Cards' netminder Mallory Murphy got a hand on the shot, but it was deflected up and over her into the net.  Ursuline added a second score in the 31st minute on a tough angled shot that Murphy again got a piece of, but the shot was too strong.  Things may have looked bleak for JPII, but there was no panic from the Lady Cards, who knew they could hang with the Bears.  Sophomore Valentina Navetta got one back for John Paul II in the 37th minute to cut the deficit to one.  Working from the right boundary near midfield, sophomore defender Erin Dull served up a laser-guided missile of a free kick towards the net.  The shot took one bounce and was bobbled by the Bears' keeper, who misjudged the power behind the kick.  Navetta, waiting to pounce on it, outmaneuvered the goalie and two Ursuline defenders to put the Lady Cards on the board.  

The late first-half goal seemed to spark life into the John Paul II supporters, who cheered on the Lady Cards with raucous applause.  It was all JPII in the second half, who went on to score three more unanswered goals while shutting out Ursuline in the final forty minutes.  Gabby Tucci helped the Lady Cardinals draw level in the 50th minute on an incredible loft shot.  A brilliantly threaded through-ball from Kaitlyn McIntyre gave Tucci a step on her marker, and the sophomore midfielder delivered with a perfectly placed chip shot over the Bears' goalkeeper that splashed into the opposite side wall, tying it up at 2-2.  

Now with all the momentum on its side, JPII continued to rain down shots on the perennial district champs.  In the 66th minute, the Lady Cardinals took the lead for good in the most miraculous fashion following another Dull free kick.  Working from sixty yards out, the sophomore used her cannon-like right leg and unloaded a monster attempt that took one bounce near the PK line and bounced up and over the extended hands of the leaping Ursuline goalie.  The Bears looked stunned that Dull would even attempt a shot from that distance and were in no position to make a play on the bounce, which landed neatly in the upper left corner of the net.  

The Lady Cards added one more score, for good measure, in the 72nd minute.  After winning a throw-in deep along the left sideline in Bears' territory, McIntyre fed Navetta, who immediately dished it back to McIntyre.  The junior defender struck gold from long range, curling in a wicked shot into the back of the net.  Now with a 4-2 lead, John Paul II was content to run out the clock for the last eight minutes, fending off the furious comeback attempt by the Bears.  Give an enormous amount of credit to the JPII back line of Dull, McIntyre, Ella Offen and Veronica James, who, after a shaky start, kept the pressure off of Murphy and shut out Ursuline in the second half.  

John Paul II is headed back to the TAPPS Division 1 State Championship for the first time since 2017-2018, where the Lady Cards lost to Ursuline 2-0.  JPII will face St. Pius X out of Houston, the #2 seed out of District 4.  To reach the title game, the Panthers walloped St. Dominic Savio 7-0 in the Area round, narrowly won against San Antonio Christian 1-0 in the Regional round, and defeated St. Agnes 2-1 in the Semi-Finals.  The Lady Cardinals and Panthers will square off tomorrow at 3:30pm north of Austin at the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex.