ROUND ROCK — A Ring Pop rested on the fingers of the Bishop Lynch girls soccer players as they wrapped up celebrating with their parents and friends. It signified the real championship ring the Friars earned on Wednesday to end a three-year stretch of heartbreaking trips to Round Rock.
They reached the championship game two years ago and lost in the state semifinal in 2023 and 2025.
“From the beginning, we never thought we were going to get here,” said senior Madison Murphy, who was on the team for all three of those state tournament losses. “We kept fighting, and we did our best. I’m really proud of our team, I love them.
“It’s amazing to go out like this.”
It took a freshman, Mila Van Loggerenberg, to end the Friars’ championship drought on Wednesday morning at the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex with the only goal of the game. Her looping hit from the endline, which she said after the game was meant to be a cross, tucked into the corner of the net in the first, sudden-death overtime period of the TAPPS Girls DI Soccer State Championship game against St. Agnes.
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“There’s a couple freshman that were a part of that first [state tournament run in 2023], and to be seniors now and actually have some fruit to show for all that is amazing,” Bishop Lynch head coach Michael Dawdy said. “I do this part-time. It’s like a hobby, but it’s become a job that I’m very passionate about, and I have a close bond with the girls. That just starts separating ourselves from other programs in trying to make it more than just the game.”
Vengeance in Round Rock started on Tuesday against the giants of TAPPS soccer, the Ursuline Bears, which won the last three DI state titles and took out Bishop Lynch during two of those runs.
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“We call it ‘hunting the Bears,’ and we’ve been hunting them for a while,” Dawdy said. “This year, we were able to come out on the other side.”
Coming back on Wednesday, the Friars didn’t play their best soccer, Dawdy continued. Neither team in the state final found fluidity or rhythm attacking, and proactive defensive lines and stingy midfields kept the game scoreless through regulation.
Eventual goal-scorer Loggerenberg said Bishop Lynch struggled to “lock in” during regulation, but it came out with energy to start extra time, generating multiple chances. The freshman winger rolled one of those chances into the St. Agnes goalkeeper’s waiting embrace before she found herself with the ball on the endline moments later and looped it over everyone and into the net.
“It’s super special,” Loggerenberg said. “It’s been a while since we won the state championship. My freshman year, we ended up pulling it off, so it’s really special.”
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