There was no WPIAL title for them this season.

Not many programs measure its success on WPIAL titles won, but that is how it is at South Park High School, where the current senior class had won three consecutive WPIAL Class AA girls' soccer titles.

Despite settling for WPIAL silver for the first time in their careers, this year's South Park team still notched some impressive accomplishments.

It won another Section 1-AA title with a perfect 12-0 section record. Through the WPIAL title game South Park was 18-2-2. It played to a tie against Class AAA Hampton during the regular season, a team that had beaten South Park the previous two seasons.

In the playoffs the Eagles overcame injuries and illness to win a pair of one-goal games against Shady Side Academy and Beaver to reach the WPIAL title game again.

It was in the WPIAL title game where the South Park seniors lost their first WPIAL playoff game of their four-year careers. The 2-1 loss to Springdale also ended a four-game postseason winning streak South Park had against the Dynamos.

If the past two years taught South Park anything, however, it is that a rematch with Springdale is quite likely. South Park began that road back with a 6-0 drubbing of District 5 champion Windber on Tuesday in the first round of the state playoffs.

The Eagles will play Center on Saturday and Springdale will meet Beaver -- all four remaining schools on the Western side of the PIAA bracket are from the WPIAL. They could possibly be on a collision course with Springdale in the PIAA semifinals. The past two seasons after winning the WPIAL title against Springdale, South Park ran into the Dynamos again in the PIAA semifinals. The Eagles came out on top both times to advance to the state title game.

In the WPIAL title game Saturday, South Park fell behind, 1-0, but tied the game when a deflected ball went off a Springdale player and into the net. Cassie Raymond was credited with the goal. The difference came in the second half when Springdale's Brittany Loveland capitalized on a penalty kick with a little more than 20 minutes left.

"The penalty kick didn't help much," South Park coach Shelly Thropp said after the game. "We still had 20 minutes to score a goal after the PK and we just didn't finish. The girls are really disappointed.

"The senior class has accomplished a lot in the past four years. They are very disappointed because the WPIAL title was one of their goals this year. The loss was an eye-opener."

During the Eagles' previous three trips to the WPIAL title game, they did not play any one-goal games. This season the path was a little tougher.

After an easy 7-0 win over Deer Lakes in the first round, South Park played a Shady Side Academy team that had shut out 14 opponents this season. On top of that the Eagles knew they would be without senior starting center back Marissa Raymond who had the flu.

Five minutes into that game, second leading goal scorer Jackie Wolfe rolled her ankle and missed the rest of the game. The game was also being played at North Hills, one of the smallest fields in the WPIAL.

"The game that I thought was tough was the Shady Side game," Thropp said. "We played on a small field. We were missing players and we had to make adjustments.

"To overcome those things and get some production from our bench, that is something we had not had in the past."

In the next round against Beaver, South Park was locked into another tight game. Despite dominating the attack, the Eagles were only able to muster one goal but that would be enough in the 1-0 semifinal win.

"The [Beaver] game was a little nerve wracking," Thropp said. "We got a lot of kids involved in the attack. Their goalkeeper was very good, she made some unbelievable saves and that kept them in the game."

The shutout against Beaver was the 16th of the season for the South Park defense. The defensive starters are one of the most decorated groups of players in the WPIAL. Three seniors -- Marissa Raymond, Maggie Conrad and Nicole Miller -- have started since they were freshmen.

Marissa's younger sister, Cassie, is the team's leading scorer. She finished the regular season with 18 goals and added five during the WPIAL playoffs.

"I think in every game you learn a little bit about your team and about yourself," Thropp said. "I think this group of kids will learn from the WPIAL championship game.

"Nobody likes to lose. I think that going forward we can use that experience to build for states."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.