photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

The Bishop Seabury girls' soccer team celebrates its regional victory following the game against Baldwin on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at Bishop Seabury Academy in Lawrence.

Since its opening in 1997, Bishop Seabury’s girls soccer team had never advanced past the regional championship.

That changed on Thursday at Bishop Seabury as the Seahawks (14-3) defeated Baldwin 1-0 behind a second-minute goal by freshman Presley Peterson, advancing to the state quarterfinals for the first time.

“We’re so excited because this has never happened before,” Peterson said. “After winning conference, we kind of knew we had a chance to win regionals.”

Veteran head coach Ivo Ivanov, who has coached both the boys and girls teams at Bishop Seabury for 20 years, was overcome with emotion at the feat.

“(We’ve) been building up to this for two decades, so it’s very emotional for me,” he said, “and these girls, they definitely deserve it. They work so hard.”

Baldwin (9-7-2) had the first chance to score in the opening minute when Lauren McCart broke through on the left side, but Bishop Seabury’s Amelia Rozzi came in for the save.

The Seahawks wouldn’t miss their chance to open the scoring on the counter-attack as Peterson found open space and slotted a shot into the back of the net in the second minute.

“I was not expecting to score two minutes in,” Peterson said. “I thought we were really going to work for our goals, but Ka’Neisha (Price) played me a great ball through. She caught the defenders drifting apart, and that led me to go and score.”

Despite the early disadvantage, Baldwin coach Ryan Cox still knew his team was never out of the match, and he had full confidence that the team could find the equalizer, noting that the Bulldog boys’ team had allowed an early goal in a regional championship before going on to win that match.

Peterson and the Seahawks had a plethora of other chances to extend their lead, but Bulldog junior goalkeeper Audrey Searl made multiple saves throughout the half to keep the score at 1-0.

“She’s continuing to improve,” Cox said. “She went out and worked on it in the offseason… she’s already working on it again for next year. She’s really dedicated and is going to be a good net minder for us next year too.”

Baldwin benefited from a yellow card issued around the 33rd minute, but the ensuing free kick from junior Brooklyn Taylor was wide.

The Bulldogs had yet another chance to even the score on a breakaway in the 38th before Bishop Seabury defender Zoe Huebner slowed the attack down and won possession back for the Seahawks.

Coming into the match, the Seahawks were an offense-focused squad, having scored 84 goals through 16 games. Thursday, however, was all about the play of the defense for the final 78 minutes.

“(Baldwin) was extremely physical, and that’s how they play,” Ivanov said. “I didn’t know how the girls would respond to the physicality, but they were just as strong, and they were able to battle.”

The last scoring chance of the first half came when Peterson raced down the left side and made a centering pass that was almost headed in for a goal, but Searl flew in for the save.

The second half was a much more physical battle, with neither team being able to create any separation.

With a team of seven freshmen and 10 total underclassmen, Bishop Seabury had to stay composed in order to keep Baldwin from finding the equalizer.

“The psyche is very important when your lead is so fragile,” Ivanov said. “That’s why we (as coaches) were screaming so much from the sideline, ‘Be tough! Be strong! Bounce back!’ Chemistry is always an issue with a very young team, and mentality is always an issue, but man, these girls are special.”

The best chance for the Bulldogs came in the final two minutes on a breakaway in front of the goal, leading to a wide-open net before sophomore Macy Ankenbauer came in the last second to knock away a shot and force a corner kick.

“I was really worried on that at first,” Rozzi said. “Macy, she’s a really good player, and she really had my back there.”

Ankenbauer, who has played in the midfield for most of the season and has scored 20 goals along with 20 assists, was slotted in at center back in order to slow down the Bulldog attack.

“She was essential in stopping them on defense,” Ivanov said. “We knew that on the outside, we were going to get beaten every once in a while because of their speed, and we talked to the center defenders to help when the outside gets beaten, and they covered pretty well.”

Baldwin had one last look in the final minute that went wide as the Seahawks were able to keep play near midfield when time expired.

“They wanted to defend our field,” Ivanov said. “They wanted to defend the honor of the school; they wanted to represent their teachers, their parents, their community, and I felt like today we defended every blade of grass on this field.”

The Seahawks will compete in the state quarterfinals on Monday, with an opponent and location yet to be determined. Ivanov said that the team will need to tidy up some mistakes before its next match.

“This was not our best game today in terms of strategy, communication, transition from defense to midfield to offense,” Ivanov said.”We had a lot of weaknesses, and we need to clean those up for the next game because it’s going to be much, much harder.”