Oviedo girls lacrosse caps historic season with state runner-up finish
Oviedo reached its first girls lacrosse final, finished 21-2 and left Naples as a state runner-up after a 13-7 loss to Ponte Vedra.
Oviedo’s girls lacrosse team left Naples with a loss, but also with a standard that did not exist in Seminole County before this spring. The Lions fell 13-7 to Ponte Vedra in the Class 2A state championship game at Paradise Coast Sports Complex on May 9, finishing their first trip to the Final Four as state runner-up and closing the season at 21-2.
The championship-game scoreboard told the story of a Ponte Vedra team that controlled the first half, taking a 3-1 lead after one quarter and a 7-4 edge at halftime before pulling away in the second half. Oviedo answered with goals from Olivia Lunardi, Cate Steinebronn, Presley Krantz, Addison Steinebronn and Savannah Fryzel, while Gianna Lunardi also factored into the game report with a draw-possession contribution.
For Oviedo, the bigger story was the climb. The Lions entered the state tournament as the No. 1 seed in Class 2A Region 2, won the program’s first regional championship and kept building through the bracket after taking the district title over Hagerty. That path brought Oviedo to Naples for the Florida High School Athletic Association state finals, held May 7-9, and gave the program its first appearance on the sport’s biggest stage.
The semifinal win that secured that berth showed why the Lions were there. Oviedo rolled past Plant 11-3, ending Plant’s perfect season and breaking open the game with a seven-goal second quarter that built an 8-1 halftime lead. Junior Addison Steinebronn had one of the most complete games of the postseason, forcing five turnovers while scoring two goals and adding two assists. Sophomore Savannah Fryzel led the scoring with three goals, and seniors Olivia Lunardi and Lexie Slain each scored twice in a balanced attack.
The run also underscored how fast the program has risen under coach Scott Dean, who has led Oviedo since 2017, with assistant James Ford helping guide a roster that mixed experienced players with younger contributors. Dean said in late April that it was the kind of season where “everything kind of clicked,” and the numbers back that up: MaxPreps listed Oviedo with 363 goals scored and only 120 allowed.
There is historical weight to what Oviedo just did. The school’s only other final-four level appearance came in 2008, the first year lacrosse was sanctioned as a state championship sport by the FHSAA. This time, the Lions went one step farther, and even in defeat they changed what the program expects of itself, what opponents will expect from it, and how loudly Seminole County will be watching next season.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
