Korrigan Sweeney and her Owen J. Roberts girls lacrosse teammates needed to be reminded of how much they hated losing before they could become champions once again. In 2023, defeats were in short supply; in 28 games, the Wildcats lost only a single one en route to their title-winning triple crown in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, District 1-3A and PIAA 3A.
They not only won — they dominated the competition in consistently convincing fashion and became the first PAC lacrosse team to win a state title. A junior on that squad, Sweeney was already a three-year starter at goalie by the time the historic run ended. She earned her stripes in the cage since she was a varsity freshman, helping guide the Wildcats to two PAC championship game appearances, a league title and two trips to the district quarterfinals through her first two high school seasons.
The 2023 campaign was a whole new animal, though. While Sweeney certainly held her own in goal, goaltending and defense were anything but the attention grabber for an OJR team that featured Division I-bound recruits all over the field — including three-time All-Americans and last year’s Mercury All-Area Co-Players of the Year Gabbi Koury and Alexa Vogelman. Then, after that epic season concluded, the majority of those star players graduated and highly-successful head coach Dave Schlesinger stepped down.
Most outsiders focused on all the team had lost rather than the returning talent still scattered about the program, namely Swe.
