Cathedral Girls Basketball has found themselves in a place they have not been to in a long time. Cathedral won its first sectional championship in 20 years, before moving on and winning the regional championship to punch their ticket to the semi-state tournament.

Tomorrow morning at 10 am the Lady Irish of Cathedral High School will face off against rival Roncalli Royals at New Albany to survive and advance.

The Lady Irish have made history this season, starting off with a great regular season, going 14-9, before starting a special postseason. Cathedral started off their sectional championship campaign with a tightly contested 51-50 win against northside rival Bishop Chatard.

The Irish then rolled through the rest of their sectional to clinch the teams first sectional championship since the 2004-2005 season. After defeating Crispus Attucks in the sectional championship, Cathedral battled against Northview High School for the regional winning a tough 38-23 game. 

The girls basketball team is coached by Mrs. Lisa Finn, who is enjoying her first deep postseason run as the head coach of the Irish. Coach Finn attributed the team’s success to many different factors. “One important thing is we have four seniors and our overall leadership and experience has helped. We have played a really tough schedule this season and it has helped us prepare for a lot of different types of teams and players that we have faced in the postseason. Having young players on Varsity also means their job as leaders is to help with showing them the way as well,” she said.

Cathedral relies on their seniors to be large contributors for the team this season. The Irish start four seniors who have been in the program their entire Cathedral career, including senior Jaeda Wilson who’s committed to play at University of Missouri-St Louis next season. When asked about the impact of the seniors on the program Coach Finn said, “We have relied on our seniors for a lot this season.  Obviously, the leadership aspect is important, but each of them lead in different ways.”

As Cathedral turns their attention toward semi-state they will play a team familiar with great games and battles against Cathedral with the Roncalli Royals. Roncalli is having a great season of their own winning their first sectional in four years. The Royals have a similar record to the Irish going 17-8 this season.

Coach Finn is looking forward to Saturday saying, “This matchup will be a good one for us. Roncalli is a similar team to us defensively and I would expect that they would pressure us quite a bit.  They have some really good offensive pieces that we are going to need to make sure we contain. Roncalli’s overall effort and intensity for the entire game will be a good test for us.”

The winner of the Cathedral-Roncalli game will advance to the semi-state championship game against the winner of the Greensburg-Evansville Central game at 8 pm on Saturday. Greensburg is going into Semi-State with a perfect 25-0 record. 

The Cathedrals girl’s basketball season has been truly special and one that the program will be able to build off of for the future. The Irish are looking forward to continuing on their special season to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the state championship. Coach Finn knows this season has been incredible and can’t wait for the opportunity for her team on Saturday.

Finn said, “It is so exciting to see the girls be successful in the postseason.  We set big picture goals as a team at the beginning of the year and they are seeing the effort and hardwork pay off.  We have talked a lot about the fact that they have put the work in….now it’s time to reward yourselves and go get it.”