LAKEVILLE - When the Indiana High School Athletic Association realigned the different sport sectional field, the 1A Sectional #34 was one that brought together a solid group of schools.Prior to 2026, LaVille participated in 1A Sectional #36 along with Argos, Culver Community, Manchester, Oregon-Davis, and Rochester. Since realignment, LHS is now in the grouping of #14 Bremen, #8 Elkhart Christian, #11 Trinity, Westville, and Marquette Catholic. The 2026 Class 1A Sectional #34 tournament is widely considered one of the most loaded and competitive 1A brackets in the state of Indiana.  With three Class 1A top 15 schools, according to the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association, along with respected regional foe and host Lancers, the sectional so far has been filled with close, competitive matches.That trend continued Wednesday night, with a pair of competitive semifinal matches.In the opener Trinity came out aggressive and got on the board first.  Felicity DeLorenzo got her shot past the Elkhart Christian Academy defense for a 1-0 Titan lead.Trinity added two more first-half goals en route to a 3-0 victory over the Eagles and advance to the October10 sectional championship. LAVILLE 2 MARQUETTE CATHOLIC 1 The LaVille girls soccer team has been in every match, except for one, during the 2026 season so far.In fact of their six losses, five have come by one goal.  The other was a 5-1 setback to Culver Community. Six losses by nine total goals.Wednesday night, as the red field lights at Newton Park took over as the sun began to set, it was the defense that rallied as the Lancers defeated a feisty Marquette Catholic team, 2-1.  With that victory, LHS will advance to the 1A Sectional #34 against Class 1A #11 Trinity Academy.  The match is scheduled for a 2pm kick at Newton Park.Marquette came out and was ready to challenge the Lancers. "The Marquette team had some good players out there that challenged our players early," said LaVille coach Kevin Christy. "We made a lot of adjustments at halftime.  We challenged the girls to do their job. That was the message this week was take care of your job, your teammates will do theirs. And it showed up in the second half of making those adjustments. It was another good job of adjusting when they are challenged by the coaching staff. It was a really good team effort." In the ninth minute, LaVille junior forward Lily Menefee rifled a pass to sophomore midfielder Reagan Strang near the goal. Strang short-hopped the pass and kicked it in the back of the goal. A few minutes later, the Blazers used their speed to push the ball to the LaVille side of the field.  Maeve Hadenfelt dribbled the ball between two Lancer defenders, settled the ball near the 18 and let fly with a shot that cleared the outstretched arms of LaVille goalie Denni Markin.Suddenly the score was tied at 1-1just under 10 minutes into the first half.Following some back and forth as the teams, a freak handball was whistled against LaVille, which resulted in a penalty kick for Marquette.Layla Clemons stepped in to take the kick. Clemons launched her shot that went straight above Markin, but just below the crossbar. The Lancer veteran got her hands up, deflected the ball out of bounds over the crossbar to remain knotted at 1-all.  "Yeah, that was really nice," smiled Christy. "Yeah, she has really been working on PKs over the last couple of years. She's got great hands, she knows the position so that was a big save for sure." Shortly after the big goalie save, LHS and the Blazers were battling for possession when Sydney Williams won a 50-50 ball. The Lancer junior midfielder carried the ball up the right wing, where sophomore forward Madison Mishler was just ahead.  Trying to remain on-side, Mishler received the ball, pushed it inside the 18 and keyed in on her shot. She rifled the ball to the far left side of the goal and past Weldy, the Marquette goalie, for the lead.With plenty of time left on the clock, Mishler's shot ended up being the eventual match-winner. "That has been one of our challenges all year, and we have worked on it all year, right," Christy said when asked about the two scoring plays. "We are a younger team ... they connected some good passes, we've worked on finishing a lot this year. You can see them really going through it and thinking about what they are supposed to be doing at this moment. Every once in a while they nail it perfectly and it looks really nice." LaVille's defense also rose to the occasion one again. Just when it looked like Marquette was pressuring to score a goal, Christy's defense rallied around the ball like a swarm of wolves collapsing around the ball.  "Yeah we talked about it," the Lancer boss said when asked about the defensive mentality of his club.  "It is a pride thing.  Go after it. If you lose it, get it back. If your teammate loses it, go support. We had pretty good communication in the back, especially in the second half.  "Yeah pack of wolves, dogs, whatever you want to call it. They got after it for sure. Coach (Keith) Norman loves to call his players dogs and I think our defense did that today too."With a challenging win behind them, LaVille now prepares for #11 Trinity Academy on Saturday. "Trinity is a really good team," explained Christy of the Titans. "They have proven it all year. It is a definite challenge. We just talked about it (after the match). There is no challenge that we don't look forward to honestly. When the draw came out, when the realignment came out was hey, this is going to be a tough sectional with top tier teams in this thing ... no matter what happens we are going to go out and give it everything we've got. Trinity is a good team but we've got as good of a shot to repeat, right." In recent history, the Lancers and Titans have not met on the pitch. LaVille has won three sectional championships and are the defending sectional champs.  Trinity Academy, formerly Trinity Greenlawn, has won two sectional trophies - 2021 and 2023.  In 2023 the Titans defeated Bremen in the sectional finale. Let's play ... IHSAA SOCCER STATE TOURNAMENT Class 1A LaVille Girls Sectional At Newton Park LaVille 2 Marquette Catholic 1 Score By Half LaVille 2 0 - 2 Marquette 1 0 - 1 Scoring Summary 1st Half L - '6 Reagan Strang (Lily Menefee) M - '8 Maeve Hadenfelt L - '25 Madison Mishler (Sydney Williams) Shots: LaVille 6, Marquette 4 Corner Kicks: LaVille 1, Marquette 3 Goalie Saves: LaVille (Denni Markin) 3, Marquette (Emma Weldy) 5 Team Records: LaVille 7-6-2, Marquette Catholic 8-9 (final)