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Garnet Valley's Heavens is a leader on Penn State lacrosse team

Right after halftime, Penn State's Ally Heavens stood next to a Northwestern player. In the pouring rain, Heavens' jersey was soaked. The Northwestern player had changed into a new uniform.

Right after halftime, Penn State's Ally Heavens stood next to a Northwestern player. In the pouring rain, Heavens' jersey was soaked. The Northwestern player had changed into a new uniform.

"A lot of top-ranked teams, they get a lot of gear. They get a lot of stuff, so I was like,'Damn,' " Heavens said.

But the Nittany Lions ended up losing by only 5-4 to the perennial powerhouse. That was why Heavens said she chose to play at Penn State in October of her junior year at Garnet Valley High School.

She wanted to be a part of the program's rebuilding process and realized the Nittany Lions were getting close to the level they wanted.

"We can hang with them, and we can be the team that gets a second uniform," Heavens thought after the one-goal loss on April 4, 2014.

Now, nearing the end of her senior year, Heavens has helped Penn State reach its first Final Four since 1999. The unseeded Nittany Lions (14-6, 3-2 Big Ten) will take on No. 3 seed North Carolina (18-2, 7-0 Atlantic Coast) on Friday at 5 p.m. at Talen Energy Stadium with a trip to Sunday's national championship game on the line.

Heavens, who has started 78 games in her career, has picked up 25 ground balls and caused 26 turnovers as a defensive midfielder this season. She is part of a class at Penn State that has seen a steady progression in Missy Doherty's third through sixth years as head coach.

"There has never been a year where [Heavens is] a little down and then a little up," Doherty said. "There can't be a 'I wonder how this person is going to play. I wonder how that person is going to play.' With Ally, you always know she's going to come and play hard."

In her freshman year, Penn State beat Florida during the regular season and lost in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. As a sophomore, the Nittany Lions lost to Northwestern by just one. Last season, they won the Big Ten tournament and again lost in the quarterfinals.

By beating Penn in the quarterfinals last weekend, Penn State got even closer to the level it was at when it reached four straight national title games, including two championships, in the late 1980s. Nine players on the Nittany Lions grew up near the Philadelphia area.

At Garnet Valley, Heavens played on two state championship teams. That experience gives her even more credibility when pumping up teammates and giving advice to younger players, said Natalie Schmitt, a Penn State defender and Archbishop Carroll High grad who knew Heavens in high school.

"Whenever we're down to get a ground ball, she's always yelling at you to get low," Schmitt said. "It's always reminders on the field to do those dirty [work] plays and get the ball."

The turning point of her career, Heavens said, was when Doherty started depending on her for key plays. Midway through last season, Doherty began calling on Heavens during timeouts to take a charge or cause a turnover.

That's when Heavens knew she had become an important contributor for Penn State on the defensive end.

"I always think about her in terms of game speed," Doherty said. "She does everything game speed. In practice she'll do it. She's just always one of those players that's working the hardest and making a huge difference."

The ascension of Doherty's program is validation of the pitch she made to the Garnet Valley player several years ago. Heavens said the end of her career is bittersweet.

But, with just two wins away from a national title near her hometown, she hopes the lasting memory will be more sweet than bitter.