The Lady Pirates knocked off Serra Catholic, Elk County Catholic and Bishop Carroll Catholic.

Williamsburg made its biggest statement of the postseason, however, this past Tuesday in the semifinals, when it shellacked a very talented Saint Joesph’s Catholic Academy team that had beaten the Lady Pirates by 28 points during the regular season, and had unseated two-time defending PIAA champion Bishop Guilfoyle Academy last Saturday.

It was only after a narrow 39-36 loss to District 1 champion Delaware County Christian in the PIAA Class 1A title game Friday afternoon at Hershey’s Giant Center that Williamsburg’s soaring postseason balloon returned somewhat back toward earth, but this year’s Lady Pirates can still savor the accomplishment of becoming the first Williamsburg basketball team to reach a state championship game since the 1997 Lady Pirates won a girls state title 29 years ago.

As dominant and skilled a scorer and rebounder as 6-foot-2 junior forward Levada Gorsuch showed herself to be again this season, and as big a collective impact as freshmen newcomers Faith Detwiler, Brynn Lower and Bella Royer all made toward Williamsburg’s success this season, it was the team’s two senior guards who provided the glue for the Lady Pirates.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Williamsburg's Regan Prough drives by Delco Christian's Audrey Bechtel.

LeeAnna Royer, a four-year starter, and Regan Prough, a three-year starter, gave this year’s Lady Pirates a sense of unwavering stability and steadfast leadership that will be sorely missed by next season’s squad, which still stands a very decent chance of matching or even surpassing the accomplishments that Williamsburg attained this season.

The void left by the graduation of the two seniors, however, will be significant, leaving two very big pairs of shoes to fill — figuratively if not literally — for Williamsburg coach Angela Detwiler.

“LeeAnna has been a four-year starter who has brought so much to this program offensively and defensively,” Detwiler said of Royer, who surpassed the 1,000-point career scoring milestone last year as a junior and will play NCAA Division II college basketball at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Royer played stellar lockdown defense against Saint Joseph’s star senior guard Naomi Crispin in the PIAA semifinal round.

“Without the defense that LeeAnna played against Naomi Crispin, I don’t think that we get a chance to play here today,” Detwiler said after Friday’s state championship game.

Prough made her own mark on the program as well.

“Regan is one of the most reliable kids that you’ll ever meet, and she’s been a great teammate for all the other players on the team,” Detwiler said.

Prough and LeeAnna Royer have been friends and basketball cohorts practically since both were cutting their baby teeth.

“We’ve been playing together since we were very young,” Prough said. “It’s been a long ride for us together that has included us playing in travel leagues together. It’s been an awesome experience. She keeps all the players on the team on track. I love her a lot.”

Starting when she was a fiery and scrappy freshman varsity player three years ago, LeeAnna Royer has always embraced a leadership role on the Williamsburg team.

“I tried to lead and show what the right things were to do out on the basketball court,” LeeAnna Royer said.

Royer said that Williamsburg’s resounding victory over Saint Joe’s was a turning point.

“We’ve always known that BG has a very tough team, but when Saint Joseph’s beat them and we drew Saint Joe’s in the next round, we had started really clicking, and we knew that we had to play to the best of our capacity in order to beat them and get to states,” Royer said.

With LeeAnna Royer running Williamsburg’s offense from the point guard position and both senior guards posing formidable 3-point shooting threats, the Lady Pirates possessed a great inside-outside complement to how Gorsuch can thoroughly dominate a game underneath the basket.

“I’m glad that we made it here, and our seniors deserve a big thank you for that,” Gorsuch said Friday afternoon.

Detwiler would be the first to agree.

“Our two seniors have given so much to this program,” she said.