Episcopal Academy an unbeaten champion; Agnes Irwin strong in defeat; EA’s heartbeat at midfield and its faceoff specialist; Four Inter-Ac All-Americans; Young Notre Dame team showing progress; A coach encouraging her young team at SCH; Penn Charter’s tough schedule and the PAISAA seedings are in!

Photos/Videos: Marc Narducci, Grayson Rupp

By: Marc Narducci

Newtown Square, PA – The run to greatness for Episcopal Academy had a major first half hiccup in its final game of the season. The Churchwomen were not only looking to clinch the outright Inter-Ac championship at home against Agnes Irwin, but they were attempting to put the finishing touches on an unbeaten season.

Earlier this season Episcopal Academy defeated fellow nationally ranked Agnes Irwin, 10-3. The rematch would be much more difficult.

Irish then got her team back into the game with consecutive goals. The Notre Dame commit scored on a free position shot to make it 3-2 and later in the second quarter, took a nice feed from Kate Dente and buried a close range shot to make it 3-3 with 3:36 left in the first half.

Still, Episcopal Academy couldn’t shake Agnes Irwin, as both teams not only battled each other, but also the elements, where it rained and often poured from much of the game.

The key was how much EA believed in itself, even when down for the majority of the first half.

“We stayed confident in our game plan,” Episcopal Academy coach Josie Tomaino said. “Playing through the elements and trusting in each other.”

For a team not accustomed to coming from behind, EA’s confidence never wavered.

“Honestly, the kids just stayed focused,” Tomaino said. “We needed to make a couple of adjustments, but nothing huge. We just need to play our game.”

Finally, Episcopal Academy took the lead for good when junior Sofia Gagliardi converted a Teagan Cook pass to give EA a 4-3 lead with 5:56 left in the third quarter.

“Teagan and I saw the back door cuts were wide open and we said ‘let’s go out of the set and give it a try,”’ said Gagliardi, who has committed to Maryland. “And I saw my open spot and it worked.”

Besides Young’s two goals, the other goal scorer for Agnes Irwin was Catie Holmes, the Maryland commit who also had two assists.

“I am proud of the kids, they definitely executed our game plan that we were looking to do,” Wray said. “It just didn’t go our way this game.”

This was the final game for Episcopal Academy, which won the PAISAA state title last year but opted not to enter the tournament.

EA finished its season 18-0. In the most recent national rankings via USA Lacrosse Magazine, the Churchwomen were ranked No. 2. What made the record so impressive is that four of the wins came against teams ranked in the Top 25. Three more victories were against teams that were also considered for the May 6 rankings.

“This is a combination of the most talented, most unselfish team I‘ve ever coached,” Tomaino said. “Going undefeated wasn’t easy as we played so many great opponents.”

This was a team anchored by some great veteran leaders.

“Our seniors had such strong leadership that focused on connected team play throughout tall the ups and down,” Tomaino said. “The entire team trusted our process.”

And that trust resulted in an unbeaten season to remember.

“It’s the best feeling ever, just coming out and knowing that we can compete every single game no mater who we’re playing,” Gagliardi said. “It’s really something special.”

For seniors like Irish, it was the type of farewell she always envisioned.

“It’s such a good feeling to end like this,” she said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with any else.”

Before playing Episcopal Academy, Agnes Irwin earned a 13-9 win over the Academy of Notre Dame. Senior Caroline Chisholm (Boston College) led the way with five goals and three draw controls. Holmes scored a hat trick. Young had two goals, two caused turnovers, three ground balls and three draw controls and junior Chelsea Kim (William & Mary) made six saves.

Episcopal Academy senior midfielder Maura Irish plays at a frenetic pace. She is constantly moving, competing with boundless energy.

“I just never want to stop,” she said. “I don’t always realize what I am doing, I am just having fun and going hard and my teammates just motivate me and we’re all so supportive.”

Among the reasons for Episcopal Academy’s success has been the faceoff work of junior Nora Bailer. She said she has been doing faceoffs since she began playing lacrosse, but really began to concentrate in eighth grade.

Bailer is in her first full varsity season in the role after doing the same on JV last year.

“It has been a pretty big jump from JV to varsity, but I had a whole year to prepare and had a lot of help from Sydney Richter,” she said.

Richter, who is currently competing at Georgetown, served as a great mentor to Bailer.

“She would stay after practice with me, and we would get a lot of reps, and she would give me all of her feedback and all of her knowledge and just gave me as much helps as she could,” Bailer said.

Tomaino said that Bailer used what she learned from Richter not only in practice, but during the JV games a year ago and then all through the summer and fall, leading to the season.

“She has been absolutely crushing it,” Tomaino said. “The kids are really happy for her because she is such a really nice kid and has put in the time and work to have the success.”

Bailer, who is a Gettysburg commit, says being part of the Episcopal Academy program is truly special.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “I think we’re all super competitive and push each other and we just all want to see each other do the best we can, and we hold each other to a really high standard.”

Four Inter-Ac players have been announced among the first three waves of players who have been selected to play in the 2025 New Balance All-American Lacrosse Seniors game.

This year’s game will be Saturday, July 26 at Towson University’s Johnny Unitas Stadium.

The girls’ game will be at 5:30 p.m. followed by the 8 p.m. boys’ game. Both will air on ESPNU.

Participants are announced in four waves of 11 players each.

In the first wave of announcements, Quinn Whitaker of Episcopal Academy and two players from Agnes Irwin, Caroline Chisholm and Mairyn Dwyer, have been selected. Episcopal Academy’s Maura Irish was recently announced in the third wave.

Whitaker and Chisholm will both attend Boston College while Dwyer is a North Carolina commit, and as earlier noted, Irish is headed to Notre Dame.

It’s been a year of progression for the Academy of Notre Dame, which is 12-9 and finished 4-6 in the Inter-Ac as it prepares for the PAISAA tournament.

Davis had four goals and two assists, freshman Erin Conroy contributed two goals and one assist, while sophomore Abby Sims had nine draw controls and three ground balls. McHugh had a goal, two ground balls and three draw controls while junior Morgan Kelly made four saves.

Davis had five goals, one assist and four draw controls, McHugh scored five goals and had one assist, while Anthony had four goals and three assists in a 15-8 win over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

The Quakers earned a 13-9 win over Manheim Township. Junior Harbor Campbell (Loyola) had four goals, Ana Buckley (Dartmouth) and Claire Cho each scored a hat trick. Junior Molly Dougherty (Michigan) had two goals, three assists and five draft controls. Freshman Makenna Myers contributed nine draw controls while junior Maeve Magarity (Boston College) made 11 saves.

Cate Wall had five goals and three caused turnovers to lead Penn Charter. Dougherty, Campbell, Lila Gonnella and Cho each scored twice.

This has been a difficult season record-wise for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, which hasn’t won an Inter-Ac game, but it is a team clearly rebuilding, with a young coaching staff.

Belle Mastropietro and Emilee Ehret have served as co-coaches and it’s a staff that had to be patient and look at small victories such as the development of the players.

Mastropietro is not very far removed from a playing career. She was a member of Temple’s team in 2024, taking advantage of a fifth year provided players due to COVID.

She had quite a playing career. During her final season in 2024, she was named the American Athletic Conference Midfielder of the Year, with 39 goals and 24 assists. A graduate of Springfield Delco, she finished her Temple career with 186 goals and 82 assists.

Mastropietro will be earning her master’s degree this month in athletic training. Her main goal as coach is making the experience a beneficial one for the players, regardless of the results.

“The games go the way they go, but I think we have done a good job highlighting what they have done well,” she said in an interview after a recent game. “And I think we’ve done a good job of telling them what they’ve done better throughout the entire season.”

She said it was a much different team at the end of the season than it was in the beginning.  Mastropietro sees positives moving on.

“Every team has building years and if this is your down year, you know that you can only go up from here and just like knowing that there’s always room to improve and just get better.”

Mastropietro says she coached some of the Inter-Ac players during the summer in club ball, so she understood the tremendous talent in the league, but facing it on a game-to-game basis was a little eye-opening.

“I knew they were good, but you it’s different to see it in person,” she said.

So, the main goal, is to improve and have the players feel good about playing the sport.

Episcopal Academy is the defending Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) champion, but as mentioned earlier, the Churchwomen won’t compete in this year’s tourney. Still, the Inter-Ac will have a major presence. The top three seeds are Inter-Ac teams.

1. Agnes Irwin
2. Penn Charter
3. Notre Dame
4. Germantown Friends
5. Germantown Academy
6. Hill School
7. Shipley
8. Westtown
9. Springside Chestnut Hill

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy will face Westtown in a play-in game.

The quarterfinals take place Saturday May 17. The PAISAA championship game will be 4 p.m. on May 22 at Villanova University.