Shell-shocked by the ending of their season, members of the Baylor girls’ soccer team stood on the field Friday night at CHI Memorial Stadium in East Ridge, crestfallen.
Tears were shed as the reality of a 2-0 loss to Harpeth Hall to set in, with the Nashville program’s victory in the Division II-AA title game preventing the Lady Red Raiders from winning what would have been their 10th TSSAA state championship in their 16th finals appearance.
A couple of members of the Baylor student section started singing the words to the school’s alma mater, which led the players to embrace and sway right and left as they sang along. Once that ended, they hugged and cried some more.
Baylor won its ninth state title in 2017, which was also its most recent finals appearance until this week. Harpeth Hall (13-0-3) – which beat another Chattanooga program Thursday, topping GPS 3-2 in a semifinal at Chattanooga Christian School – was in a title match for just the fourth time and added a second championship eight years after its first.
It took only 137 seconds for the Honeybears to get on the board Friday, with freshman Quinn Erim scoring the first of her two goals on an assist from Mary Roper. The second came with about 10 minutes to play, and the Lady Red Raiders (16-2-2) struggled to get into the flow of the game in between those scores.