Conestoga’s Maggie Neary passes the ball ahead. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)
By Owen McCue
It would be an understatement to call the Conestoga and Haverford girls basketball teams familiar foes.
The Pioneers and Fords met up for the ninth time in three seasons on Friday night in the Central League semifinals as the matchup that decided the league champion in both of the past two seasons took place a round earlier.
After falling to Haverford in the league title game in each of the past two seasons, second-seed Conestoga broke through for a grind-it-out 28-23 win over the third-seed Fords to book a third straight trip to the Central League title game. Conestoga will face top seed Garnet Valley on Monday at Marple Newtown.
“It’s definitely really exciting because they’ve beat us in the championship twice and we wanted to get our revenge, and we’re not done yet,” Conestoga junior Ryann Jennings said. “We still have the championship Monday, and we’re still going to be prepping for that.”
Conestoga (18-5) entered the season with one win in its last seven games against the Fords (18-5). The Pioneers won both regular season meetings, starting the new year with a 38-32 win on Jan. 3 and closing the regular season with a 36-32 victory on Tuesday.