Over the past few seasons, Fairview girls lacrosse has been champing at the bit to earn a bid to the Class 5A state championship game. Every year, the Knights have fallen just short, bowing out in the semifinals in 2022 and in the quarterfinals last year.
Eight games into this spring, they believe they can go all the way and are displaying that enthusiasm through every dominant win. On Wednesday, they continued their string of success with a 17-9 victory over Poudre School District.
“It was weird last year, because we knew we could win, but there was something that wasn’t clicking,” junior Gabriella McCollester said. “And this year, we definitely have that. We’re coming in with so much fire this year. The past two years, we’ve been trying to go to state and it just hasn’t happened for us.”
Despite being a top-10 matchup on paper — with Fairview ringing in at No. 3 in CHSAA’s Selection & Seeding Index and PSD claiming a No. 8 ranking — the Knights held control from start to finish, and triggered a running clock at various points throughout the contest.
Gabriella McCollester led the scoring initiative with five goals and also won 13 draw controls. Her sister and fellow junior, Tessa, contributed another five scores. The Stars just couldn’t keep up, even when the Knights allowed them to creep back into the game in the second half.
The ladies, who now own a 7-1 record with a 13-8 loss to Colorado Academy as their only blemish, chalked their good fortunes up to a stronger bond both on and off the field, as well as a little fire after last year’s early exit. Losing a large chunk of their roster to the St. Vrain Valley district team based at Mead didn’t help matters either, but they’re back to their old ways once again.
“I think that this team is incredibly coachable,” head coach Kelsey Sheridan said. “We’ve been focusing a lot on ourselves this season and really getting better with our attacking sets and our zone defense and everything like that. Everything that we’ve thrown at them as a coaching staff, the kids have really absorbed.
“Last year was tough after we broke off with St. Vrain. Two years ago, we were very deep. I think this year, we’re even deeper. We have a lot of kids that are producing from the top down and so I would say that this is probably the deepest team we’ve had since I’ve been coaching.”
