BY MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW                                                                   June 4, 2010

Despite being ranked in the top 15 in the nation for the entire year, the Loyola girls lacrosse team knew nothing was going to come easy in its quest for a state championship — especially against rival New Trier. But the Ramblers held off off the Trevians 18-11 on Friday in the IHSWLA title game at Northwestern.

Loyola (24-1) used a balanced attack to claim its second consecutive state title. Grace Dooley, Holly Hovanic, Molly Hulseman and Grace Bowen each had three goals, while Colleen Smith, Elizabeth O’Malley and Caroline Maddock each scored two.

‘‘Back-to-back state champs feels amazing,’’ O’Malley said. ‘‘We’ve been fighting for this all year, especially with all of the praise, but we showed that we deserve to be nationally ranked and we do have some really good players here.’’

After allowing two New Trier goals in the first two minutes, Loyola scored the next three, on the way to a 10-4 halftime advantage.

The Trevians then scored six of the first seven goals of the second half, including five straight to close to 11-10. But Loyola showed how explosive their offense can be by responding with four goals over a 70-second span.

Emily Mohr had five saves for Loyola, which outscored its playoff opponents 75-6. New Trier (19-4-1) was led by Molly Quirke with 3 goals.