I think it really just brings us close together knowing that we can beat these harder teams and that we can do that in the future and go further.”

Mo Brinkman

After suffering through three tough one-loss games to three of Minnesota’s best this season, the Park Wolfpack won Thursday against one of Wisconsin’s best.

The 10th-ranked Wolfpack edged a talented Hudson team 10-9 to end the regular season on a high note. Ranked the No.1 team in Wisconsin, Hudson suffered only its second loss of the season, both to Minnesota teams.

For Park, it was further validation that the Wolfpack can play with the best lacrosse teams this spring.

“I was a little nervous about tonight,” said head coach Bailey Aasen. “I knew we were coming into a good team right before sections. And we’re at the height of our season which is great and I knew it would set us up well for going onto sections. But this is a well-respected team. I’d rate this one pretty high up there along with Cretin, Stillwater.”

Second-seeded Park (10-3) will host a Class 1A, Section 3 quarterfinal game Thursday, starting at 7 p.m. The Wolfpack will play the winner of seventh-seeded St. Paul/Two Rivers (7-6) and tenth-seeded Hastings (1-11). Win Thursday and the semifinals will be played Monday at noon. The finals are set for June 3, also at noon.

Cretin-Derham Hall (11-1) drew the top seed in the section. East Ridge was seeded third, St. Croix Preparatory fourth, Woodbury fifth and Simley sixth

Thursday’s game was a close, tight, contest start to finish. Park led 4-3 after one quarter, 7-6 at the half and 9-7 after three periods. But the Hudson Raiders rallied in the fourth and closed to 10-9 in the game ‘s final minutes. Both teams took shots in the final three minutes but neither connected and Park took over the ball I the final 29 second and were able to run out the clock.

Junior Maleah McMorrow and freshman Mo Brinkman led the Wolfpack offensively with three goals each. Senior Sidni Gitzen and sophomore Madison Milosevich each scored twice. Alaina Wright had two assists, Brinkman and Madison Milosevich one each.

“I was a little nervous about tonight,” said head coach Bailey Aasen. “I knew we were coming into a good team right before sections. And we’re at the height of our season which is great and I knew it would set us up well for going onto sections. But this is a well-respected team. I’d rate

“This is the first game that we took what in learned in practice onto the field,” said McMorrow. “We’ve really been focusing on cutting through, finding assists, and when we make mistakes how to recover. Just going back to the things that we learned and the systems we put it because those systems are designed for us to help us win.”

“This is a really good game for us to get ready for sections,” said Brinkman. “This is a really good team and they got first in Wisconsin last year. … I think it really just brings us close together knowing that we can beat these harder teams and that we can do that in the future and go further.”

Senior goalie Lauryn Ehrenstrom had four saves in 13 shots on goal.

Park finished the regular season 10-3 with only those one-goal losses to No. 6 Cretin-Derham Hall, No. 3 Stillwater and White Bear Lake. The win over Hudson likely takes some of the sting away.