The undefeated girls’ field hockey team at Meridian High School began State Tournament play on Tuesday night, hosting Grafton in the quarterfinals with a ticket to Virginia Beach on the line. The Mustangs won all three games of the Regional Tournament by a score of exactly 1-0, but they’d need more than that to take this one in what proved to be a thrilling battle.

            Cassie DuBois opened the scoring late in the first period, capping off a gritty sequence in front of the net by following through on her own rebound and shooting it past Grafton’s goaltender.The Mustangs then doubled their lead midway through the second, with DuBois getting the assist on Lila Deering’s goal, and led 2-0 at halftime after Briana Corry made some spectacular saves on the other end. But Grafton wouldn’t go away without a fight, as they scored twice in the third period to tie the game, and in the process doubled the amount of goals Meridian had given up all season long.

Thankfully for the Mustangs, Lucy Hladky came to the rescue less than a minute later, blasting a beautiful, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one-timer from long distance to give Meridian the lead again. This was able to swing the momentum in the home team’s favor for good, and they would put it away in the fourth quarter with two more tallies in a span of just over a minute, with Hladky adding a second and then Delaney Flanagan capping off what ended up being a 5-2 victory.

With the win, the Mustangs move to 20-0 on the season, and will travel to Virginia Beach for the remainder of the postseason. They’ll play against a to-be-determined opponent in the semifinals on Friday, and if they win that, they’ll advance to the championship game on Saturday.