There's a first time for everything.

For the Battlefield girls lacrosse team, beating Loudoun Valley once: that was a first.

Topping the Vikings twice in the same season: another first.

How about sweeping the Cedar Run district en route to claiming a title of any kind? Another first.

In fact, the victories over powerhouse Loudoun Valley, the district title and Battlefield's strength of schedule gave the Bobcats their highest-ever ranking within the commonwealth at No. 3, according to LaxPower.com.

That ranking came this week after Battlefield closed out its regular season schedule with back-to-back home-field wins against Loudoun Valley on May 6 and Heritage on May 9.

Battlefield (10-3 overall, 8-0 district) clinched the district title by topping the Vikings 12-9. The Bobcats came back from an 8-7 halftime deficit to outscore their opponent from Purcellville by a 5-1 clip in the second half.

"It was relief," said senior Morgan Clark after the game. "There's no words to explain it. To beat them our second time; there's no words."

Accounting for more than half of Battlefield's scoring, junior Margaret McCaleb and senior Laura Szczyrba combined for seven goals (four for McCaleb) while senior Sara Jacobson added another two. Seniors Sam Lilley, Allie Rash and Nicole Maples each contributed one too.

The one by Maples came with 45 seconds left to go in the game and essentially sealed Loudoun Valley's fate. Strangely enough, the goal actually came from a bit of a blown play as Maples scored on an empty netter with the goalie out of position on a stall play designed to run out the clock.

Even though the formation known as "Bobcat" calls for each player to avoid creating shooting situations, this one just turned out to be too good of an opportunity with low enough risk for Maples to pull the trigger.

"I can't yell at her for making that goal," said head coach Jenny Tran.

Defensively, senior goalie Catilin Hester collected 14 saves on 25 shots on goal.

She also was "so accurate with our clears," said Tran, mentioning that her passes set up solid midfield transitions.

The coach attributed the second-half turn around in part to an aggressive defense and winning draw controls while taking accurate shots on goal, even from a distance.

"Six of our goals were 8-meter shots," she said.

Battlefield received three yellow cards on the night, proving that they were in fact drawing much more contact.

However, offensively, the team utilized a quick style of attack based on short passes in order to create open spots deep within Viking territory.

"We had a lot of plays from behind the goal," said Clark.

Battlefield followed up its victory with a senior-night win with a 21-5 victory against Heritage to complete the district sweep for the season. The win marked Battlefield's first district title in girls lacrosse and gives the Bobcats home-field advantage through at least the early rounds of the playoffs.

On the larger scale, only undefeated James Madison and Chantilly ranked above the Bobcats at the end of the regular season while Loudoun Valley finished the regular season mired in sixth place overall.

James Madison defeated Battlefield 17-4 on April 5 and No. 5 Westfield topped the Bobcats 14-8 three days earlier.

After the back to back defeats, Battlefield brought home wins in eight of its final nine games, only dropping a double-overtime thriller against No. 8 Oakton on May 4 by a 13-12 margin.

"We have a good chance at states," said Maples. "That brings a mentality that this is our year."

The district tournament semi-finals are set for Monday, May 16 with the finals scheduled for May 19. Both games are set to begin at 7 p.m.