Lovett Lions Win Girls Soccer State Championship

The Lovett Lions held on tight for a 1-0 victory over Greater Atlanta Christian in the GHSA Private Girls State Championship. A first half goal from Mary Camp Newton and timely saves from Covington Baumann in the second half led the Lions to its second consecutive state championship.

The Lions took the lead early in the first half when Newton found the back of the net. The Lions goalscorer spoke after the feeling of scoring in a close state championship match saying, “It feels really good. It feels like all of our hard work this season paid off.”

Newton found herself through on goal again in the second half and fired a strong shot on target, but her effort was saved by the Spartans’ keeper.

Baumann made a crucial save early in the second half maintaining the first half lead for the Lions. The Lions goalkeeper talked about the feeling of keeping a decisive shutout saying, “It feels exhilarating. Our defense and midfield are fantastic. It was everyone’s effort today. We’ve been working so hard for this.”

After a long spell of possession for the Lions, Baumann was forced to make another clever stop with under ten minutes left in the game. She discussed the challenge of maintaining focus in goal while her team dominated possession and said, “You have to stay in focus the entire time. It is definitely a mindset of being able to maintain an idea of what’s going on at all times so you can help your team. As the goalkeeper, it’s crucial that you are on top of things to be able to conduct the team.”

Head Coach Virginia Kerns praised her team’s defensive work rate and focus explaining, “We talk about winning the first half, then winning the second half. We don’t talk about winning the game. We break it down into segments that are really short so they can understand, ‘I played really hard this game but now that doesn’t matter, I need to play hard the next game.’”

Wednesday’s state championship marked Kerns’ fourth as the Lions head coach. After the match, she talked specifically about what makes this team unique saying, “This team has been playing together for all four years. I feel like we’ve had a very strong core group moving through our lineup. They are very comfortable with one another, and they’re comfortable giving feedback to each other, which is a very important part of our game. It was a truly special team.”

The Lions finished its season with a 17-3-1 (W-L-T) record, scoring 124 goals and conceding just 18 goals. The team kept ten shutouts, including back-to-back shutouts in the semifinal and state championship game.