2024 Soccer State Tournament: Class A Girls Championship

Six losses on the record of a state champion isn’t a common thing. Providence Academy doesn’t care much about that because it won the most important game of the season.

The Lions, the No. 2 seed in the Class A field, learned their lessons during a challenging regular season by piecing together a masterful postseason that ended with a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Southwest Christian in the championship game late Friday, Nov. 1 at U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown St. Paul. 

Ninth-grade forward Blake Hudson scored the game’s only coveted goal in the 64^th meeting on an assist by junior forward Maddyn Greenway to give the Lions (14-6-0) their first girls soccer championship in three state tournament appearances. A year ago, Providence Academy defeated Southwest Christian (19-1-1) for the third-place trophy. 

Providence Academy is a member of the Independent Metro Athletic Conference, a group that includes a handful of soccer powers. Among their losses, the Lions had two losses to Blake, two to Breck, one to Holy Angels (the runner-up in Class AA) and was on the wrong end of a 10-0 shellacking from Wayzata, who earlier in the day captured the Class AAA crown. 

The learning was evident when the Lions captured the Section 5A championship on a 1-0 victory over Breck. That catapulted the Lions to a 7-1 victory over Concordia Academy in the Class A quarterfinals followed by a 3-0 win over St. Charles, the Class A runner-up in 2023. 

Southwest Christian had an impressive season with only a 1-1 draw against Mound Westonka as the lone blemish.