Lakeland cruises to victory

VIRGINIA BEACH — Summer Parker and Jamee Albright scored hat tricks as Lakeland cruised to its 11th straight postseason field hockey victory, beating Granby 10-1 in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Region Tournament Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Field Hockey National Training Center.

The Lady Cavaliers (15-4) advanced with one of their easiest victories of the season to bring up their most important match of the season in the final four of regionals. Lakeland will meet Beach District runner-up Cox for a berth into the VHSL Group AAA State Tournament.

Cox, state champions four straight seasons from 2006-09, beat Peninsula District champion Gloucester 7-1 in a quarterfinal at the same time the defending state champion Lady Cavs blitzed through their match.

Compared to the final score, it was a slow start for the Lady Cavaliers. Head coach Tara Worley, even as her squad already had a 1-0 lead and were dominating possession in the early minutes, let her players know she wasn’t satisfied during a Lakeland timeout 13 minutes into play.

Defender Kristen Vick put Lakeland ahead in the eighth minute. After Granby partially cleared a Lakeland penalty corner, Vick dribbled into the right side of the Granby arc and blasted a big slap shot low into the Lady Comet cage.

Following the fiery timeout, it still took the Lady Cavs a few minutes to convert all of their possession, passing and dribbling into another goal. The second Lady Cavalier goal set off a huge rally that put the match out of reach in the last 11 minutes of the half.

Defender Kelsey O’Leary set up the second Lady Cavalier strike, intercepting a Granby pass near midfield and immediately passing crisply to Parker inside the Granby arc. Parker passed to Kasey Smith. Smith kept the ball moving to Jessie Cox for an easy tap-in goal for Cox at the right post.

Kristen Vick and Jamee Albright wove through Granby’s midfield, leading to Albright’s pass setting up Smith for a blasted slap shot at the top of the Lady Comet arc for a 3-0 Lakeland lead in the 23rd minute.

Parker scored her first goal a couple minutes later, finishing a big flurry of Lakeland shots and rebounds with Cox getting an assist.

Albright, who won the Southeastern District Player of the Year award last week as the Lady Cavaliers won the district tournament to finish their Southeastern campaign 11-0, scored off an assist by Vick to make it 5-0 just under two minutes before halftime.

The Lady Cavaliers struck for five more goals in the first 19 minutes of the second half. The Lady Cavaliers proceeded to have a game of keep-away on the fast artificial turf for the last 10 minutes of the match, interrupted for a second by Granby scoring with a minute left to play.

Albright and Parker scored two goals apiece in the second half with forward Jillian Bates scoring once. Smith assisted on two of the second-half goals.

The Lakeland and Cox contest for a state tourney spot and a regional final spot is set for Thursday at 3 p.m. at the National Training Center.