The lights remain off and a closed sign is posted in the front window at Piccolo’s Pizzeria at 4162 Pilot Knob Road. Calls made to the pizzeria during peak purchase hours were unanswered. Lady Katherine’s closed earlier this year in the Hilltop Plaza after mold was discovered in the studio. (Photo by Jessica Harper)

Pole dancing fitness studio, Lady Katherine, has closed its Eagan location after mold was discovered in the space at 4178 Pilot Knob Road.

The mold issues, which were caused by ice damage last winter, have since been remedied by the owner, said Jon Hohenstein, Eagan community development director.

Katherine Fossler, owner of Lady Katherine, has since consolidated the Eagan studio with the Hudson, Wis., location.

Fossler opened the Eagan location in December 2011 to provide the unique fitness classes south of the river.

She said she is looking to reopen the second location in either northern Eagan, Mendota Heights or Inver Grove Heights by this fall.

“This has given me an opportunity to move where I wanted to initially,” she said. “Now there’s a lot more choices.”

Lady Katherine isn’t the only business that appears to have closed recently in the Hilltop Plaza.

The lights remain off and a closed sign is posted in the front window during a recent daytime stops to Piccolo’s Pizzeria at 4162 Pilot Knob Road. Calls made to the pizzeria during peak purchase hours were unanswered.

Piccolo’s owner, William (Jack) Morrison, could not be reached for comment.

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Eden Prairie goalie Max Fahey blocks a close-range shot by Eastview’s Ryan McNamara in the state boys lacrosse championship game. Photo by Rick Orndorf

Eastview kept taking Eden Prairie’s best shots and coming back – until Eden Prairie’s final shot left the Lightning with no time to come back.

The Lightning held on gamely to its dream of winning back-to-back state boys lacrosse championships before a goal by Eden Prairie freshman J.D. Spielman with 12.4 seconds remaining gave the Eagles a 9-8 victory in the title game Saturday night at Chanhassen High School.

Eastview never led in the game but on four occasions came back to tie it. The last tie was 8-8, after goals by Michael Stillings and Ryan McNamara 34 seconds apart brought the Lightning back even with 5 minutes, 18 seconds to play.

“When it was 8-8 and we had the ball, I was pumped,” McNamara said. “I thought we were going to be able to do it. But they made a great play at the end.”

Eden Prairie was awarded possession with 2:45 remaining after Eastview’s Brett Schweiger fired a shot wide of the Eagles’ goal. After calling timeout with 2:27 left, Eden Prairie held the ball until Nic Bentz found Spielman open on the back side of the formation for a close-range shot.

Eastview was able to get it to Tanner Hamill for a last-second shot, but the Eden Prairie defense blocked it.

It was the first victory for Eden Prairie (18-0) in five appearances in the state championship game. Eastview (14-4), which defeated Eden Prairie 10-4 in last year’s state final, dubbed this season as “The Return.” The Lightning indeed made it back to the state tournament, although it didn’t get the outcome it sought.

Michael Stillings (25), Brett Schweiger (5) and Nick Abbott celebrate following an Eastview goal in the state boys lacrosse championship game. Photo by Rick Orndorf

“We lost a lot of players from last year’s team,” McNamara said. “But we also had a sophomore goalie step up and some junior defensemen step up. We definitely thought we had a chance to win the state tournament again.”

Slow starts were a theme for Eastview, which scored only two first-quarter goals in its three state tournament games. The Lightning was able to recover and beat Orono (10-5) and Champlin Park (10-6) in the first two rounds as the defense locked down on the opponent.

“It’s all about back-side support and on-the-ball defense,” coach Tim Roche said following the semifinal victory over Champlin Park. “When we’re doing those well, we know we’re on our game. We’re very good when we can see what’s in front of us.”

The Lightning never did completely recover from its slow start against Eden Prairie. The Eagles scored the first three goals of the championship game before the Lightning’s Mitch Beattie put his team on the scoreboard with 2:01 remaining in the first quarter. Nick Abbott, Shane Kenealey and Schweiger scored in the second quarter. McNamara, the Lightning’s leading scorer, had two goals in the second quarter before completing his hat trick with the goal that tied the game 8-8.

The Lightning didn’t have an answer for the last-minute goal by Spielman, one of two sons of Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman who play lacrosse for Eden Prairie.

Saturday’s game was the third state final for Eastview, which was runner-up in 2009. The Lightning was trying to become the fifth school to win two consecutive championships; the last to do it was Benilde-St. Margaret’s in 2009-10.

McNamara and Hamill, who each scored seven goals in the state tournament, were named to the all-tournament team, as was Beattie, who had four goals and three assists in three games.

McNamara, who scored 52 goals this season, including 12 in the Section 3 championship game, will follow the Lightning from a distance next year when he’s playing lacrosse for Marquette University.

He said he expects to see his alma mater back at the state tournament.

“They have a lot of good young players coming up,” he said. “They’ll definitely have a good team next year.”

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Lakeville North’s Lexie Witte controls the ball during the state girls lacrosse championship game against Blake on Saturday at Chanhassen High School. Photo by Rick OrndorfShortly after the final horn Saturday evening, the question hung in the air: Did Lakeville North lose or just run out of time?

Shortly after the final horn Saturday evening, the question hung in the air: Did Lakeville North lose or just run out of time?

The Panthers, who already had pulled one historic upset in the state girls soccer tournament, fell just short of another when they fell to Blake 14-12 in the championship game at Chanhassen High School last weekend.

Blake led by as many as seven goals in the first half before holding off a Lakeville North rush in the second half to win its fourth consecutive state title.

“We didn’t play with any heart or passion in the first half,” said junior attack Kacie Waagbo, a North captain. “Our coach (Mo Gaitan) knew it, and she gave us the best halftime pep talk I’ve ever heard.”

Gaitan declined to tell a reporter what she said at halftime, saying she might need to use that speech again someday. But the Panthers’ first-half problems weren’t hard to diagnose.

“We were out-hustled and outworked,” the coach said. “In the second half, we went back to being the team we were in our last two (state tournament) games.”

Saturday’s game was historic in the sense that it was the first time a team other than Blake and Eden Prairie appeared in the final since the Minnesota State High School League began sponsoring the state tournament in 2007. Blake and Eden Prairie had met in the championship game six years in a row, and some undoubtedly assumed the same would be true this year. Lakeville North’s 13-12 overtime upset of No. 1-seeded Eden Prairie on June 12 changed all that.

“I think we received a ton of respect in the lacrosse community when we beat Eden Prairie,” Waagbo said. “And it gave us a lot of confidence. We definitely thought we could win this (championship) game.”

Lakeville North trailed 9-2 less than 18 minutes into the game before scoring three of the final four goals of the first half. The second half didn’t start much better, and North was down 12-6 with 20 minutes to play. The Panthers chipped away with two goals by Waagbo and one each by Lauren Storhoff, Hannah Koloski, Emmie Madsen and Makayla Kubisiak.

Emmie Madsen of Lakeville North moves upfield in the state girls lacrosse championship game. Photo by Rick Orndorf

Kubisiak’s goal with 3:55 remaining made it 14-12. North recovered the ball on the ensuing faceoff but turned it over shortly thereafter, and Blake stalled out most of the remaining time.

“We knew the odds were against us, but it didn’t stop us,” Gaitan said. “The comeback was great. The kids just kept fighting.”

Koloski and Madsen each scored three goals for North in the championship game. Kubisiak and Waagbo scored twice each. Koloski and goalie Alyssa Friesen each had six ground-ball recoveries, and Friesen made six saves.

Koloski and Waagbo were named to the all-tournament team.

This was the first time Lakeville North qualified for the state girls lacrosse tournament on its own. A combined Lakeville North-Lakeville South team played at state in 2010.

North, which finished 14-5, has raised expectations for next season – and, for that matter, all future Panthers teams. Seven seniors have played their final high school game, but Waagbo and Kubisiak are among those returning next year.

Asked if the Panthers can return to state next season, Gaitan said, “we don’t expect anything less. We have a lot of good kids.”

But the Panthers will take some time to savor this season’s accomplishment. Waagbo said if the players had been told at the beginning of the season they would finish second in the state tournament, they would have happily accepted it.

“This team is an amazing group of girls,” Waagbo said. “We had a great season, finished second in the state, and I’ll take it.

“But I can’t wait for next season.”

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Cretin-Derham Hall junior Megan Linder, an Eagan resident, won the state Class AA girls 400-meter championship for the second consecutive year. Photo by Mike Shaughnessy

Like most people who compete on the track, Megan Linder has a favorite race – but it’s not the one at which she has had the most success.

Linder prefers the shorter sprints, the 100- and 200-meter races, as do many fans. As for the 400 – where she’s a back-to-back state Class AA girls champion – that’s a little more like work.

“My favorite is the 200 because it’s that last (sprint) race of the night, and it’s a lot easier than the four,” Linder said. “The 400 is absolutely draining, mentally and physically.”

But Linder also is a pragmatist, and the Eagan resident and Cretin-Derham Hall junior realizes the 400 is the key to her track and field future.

“I think (the 400) is what I’m doing in college,” she said.

Linder won the 400 in 55.62 seconds at the state meet June 8 at Hamline University, about nine-tenths of a second faster than her winning time in 2012. It’s also her personal record in the event; her previous PR was the day before in the state preliminaries.

She needed to be faster because her first-place time from last year would have been good for fifth place this year.

“I think last year there was a little less pressure,” she said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can do it, I’m not sure. Just give your best, no matter what happens.’

“This year there was more pressure because I was expected to win. I just kept saying, ‘I believe I can do it.’ ”

After winning the state championship in the 400 in 2012, Linder increased her weight training in the off-season. She said she was concerned the bad weather that plagued most spring sports in April and May would set her back.

“It was hard missing all of those easy, non-pressure meets (early in the season) because they help you build momentum for the end of the season,” Linder said.

Once she got back to the state meet, Linder said she had a good idea of how to prepare.

“I just focused on really being relaxed,” she said. “A lot of people at the state level are tense and nervous, and it affects your running form.

“I don’t focus on anyone else because in the end that doesn’t get you where you need to be. I focus on what I need to hit to get where I want to be.”

In the 200, Linder’s favorite race, she finished fourth at state in 25.26. Osseo senior Phillis Webb won in 24.83.

Three sprinters with Eagan ties finished almost in a dead heat in the 200 final. Eagan High School ninth-grader Maddie Gourley was third, .002 ahead of Linder. Eagan junior Emerald Egwim was fifth, .01 behind Linder.

Linder was seventh in the 100 in 12.56 but was only .02 from finishing third. She scored 21 of Cretin-Derham Hall’s 30 points as the Raiders finished seventh in the Class AA team standings.

After taking a week off from training, Linder planned to be back at it this week. She is scheduled to compete in the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympic Championships in North Carolina in July. That meet could help shape her college future. Linder said she would like to run track at a school in California or the southern United States.

And next season? “I think I’m just going to try to get some more PRs next year,” she said.

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Samantha Vikstrom of Burnsville moves the ball upfield against Lakeville North in the state girls lacrosse tournament. Photo by Rick Orndorf

Burnsville’s first trip to the state girls lacrosse tournament ended with a weather-delayed 14-12 loss to Robbinsdale Armstrong in the consolation championship game.

Saturday’s game at Chaska High School was to conclude at about the time Lakeville North and Blake were warming up for the championship game at Chanhassen High. But thunderstorms rolled through the area, delaying play at both sites. The championship game and consolation final ended up taking place at about the same time.

On the subject of time, that’s a commodity that ran short for Burnsville in the consolation final. The Blaze, which trailed 12-7 with 10 minutes, 31 seconds left, scored five of the game’s last seven goals.

Goals by Bailey Childs and Madison Maas put Burnsville ahead 2-0 just 2:32 into the game. Armstrong scored six goals in the next 9:03 – three by Mari Verbeten – to take a lead it would not give up. The Blaze cut Armstrong’s lead to two goals on five occasions but could not get closer.

Junior midfielder Lindsey Coleman led Burnsville with three goals and four assists, scoring on the only three shots she took.

Childs, Maas, Briita Nelson and Kallie LaValle scored twice each, and Emma Wittchow had one goal.

After a 16-12 loss to Lakeville North in the state quarterfinals, Burnsville defeated Champlin Park 11-9 in the consolation semifinals June 13.

Coleman and Childs each scored three goals for the Blaze, with each completing her hat trick after Champlin Park tied the game 9-9 with nine minutes remaining. Emily Skogseth had a goal and assist, and Samantha Vikstrom had two assists.

Lakeville North became the first South Suburban Conference team to reach the state championship game when it defeated No. 1-seeded Eden Prairie 13-12 in overtime in the semifinal round. Blake defeated North 14-12 to earn its fourth consecutive state championship.

Coleman, who had eight goals and five assists in three games at state, was named to the all-tournament team.

Burnsville (15-3) closed its most successful season, which included a regular-season victory over Lakeville North and second-place finish in the South Suburban Conference. The Blaze’s only regular-season loss was by one goal to SSC champion Lakeville South.

The girls lacrosse team graduated five seniors – Maas, defender Joelle Strand, midfielder Alexa Pearson, attacker Tiana Khamvongsa and goalie Jaclyn Hinz. Coleman, Childs, Nelson, Skogseth, Vikstrom and Wittchow are among the players who will be back next season as Burnsville tries to reach the state tournament again.

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Eagan’s Erin Klucas watches her tee shot during the state Class AAA girls golf tournament at Bunker Hills. Photo by Mike Shaughnessy

The state tournament is much more competitive than anything most high school golfers will see all season. That wasn’t exactly a surprise to the Eagan girls team, which finished sixth in the Class AAA tourney last week.

Eagan was coming off a season-best team score of 341 in the final round of the Section 3AAA tournament at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids. The state meet was held at the same course June 11-12. If Eagan had matched its low score of the season each of the two days at state, it would have finished fifth. It would have taken another major drop in scores for the Wildcats to contend for the championship, won by Edina with a two-day score of 644.

Eagan shot 347 the first day but struggled the second day, coming in with 361 for a 708 total. A weather delay in the second round, which pushed back the girls tee times 90 minutes, probably didn’t do anything good for the Wildcats’ nerves.

Wildcats senior Mallory Drenttel overcame a rough start to tie for 26th place individually. Drenttel shot 46 on her first nine holes, but came back with 38 on her second nine for an 84. She shot 83 in the second round.

Shelby Braun, also a senior, had 85-89–174 to tie for 45th. Senior Erin Klucas had 84-94–178 and tied for 54th.

Also competing for the Wildcats at state were eighth-grader Molly Ploetz (tie for 71st, 94-95–189), sophomore Karli Simon (76th, 98-96–194) and junior Ina San Jose (tie for 82nd, 101-104–205).

Edina led the team competition by four strokes over Alexandria after the first day and ended up winning by 11.

Wayzata junior Sarah Burnham and New Prague junior Kenzie Neisen tied for the individual championship at 140, 6 under par. Neisen shot 68 and Burnham 69 in the second round; those were the only two rounds below 70 in the Class AAA tournament.

Defending champion Celia Kuenster of Cretin-Derham Hall finished third, four strokes behind Burnham and Neisen.

Opatz improves by 10

Eastview junior Kari Opatz shot 77 in the second round – a 10-stroke improvement over her first round – to earn a tie for 19th at state.

Opatz’s 36-hole total of 164 was six strokes lower than her score at the 2012 state meet, where she tied for 24th. She qualified for this year’s tournament by winning the Section 3AAA individual championship.

Opatz’s teammate, junior Madi Roe, shot 82-88–170 to tie for 40th place. That was a 20-stroke improvement over her finish at state in 2012.

Kerr places 43rd

Apple Valley junior Lauren Kerr, making her third consecutive appearance at state, tied for 43rd with 90-83–173.

Kerr has improved each year at state, and her second-round 83 is the first time she has shot below 90 in the Class AAA tournament. She was 74th at state as a ninth-grader and tied for 53rd last year.

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Summer doesn’t mean an end to sports activity at local high schools, as several of them have coaching vacancies to fill for the 2013-14 school year.

Eastview has filled its volleyball head coaching position, hiring Ted Reiff, who was head coach at Benilde-St. Margaret’s the last three years. Reiff takes over for Becky Egan, who was named head coach at Hamline University in March.

Before coaching at BSM, Reiff was head coach at Holy Angels for eight years. He previously coached at the University of Wisconsin, Augsburg College, Minnesota State, Mankato, Prior Lake and Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial high schools. He also has coached in several club programs, including Northern Lights Volleyball and M1 Volleyball.

“I couldn’t be more excited to become a member of the Eastview community and to step into the head coaching role of Eastview volleyball,” Reiff said in a news release from the school. “This is one of the premier volleyball programs in Minnesota and I look forward to taking the baton from coach Egan.”

Apple Valley High School has to hire replacements for boys track and field coach Rod Dirth, who retired, and volleyball coach Shelly Lundin, who resigned. That’s in addition to the boys swimming coaching vacancy created when Mike McManus announced his retirement earlier this spring.

Dirth coached and taught physical education and mathematics for 33 years and has more than 60 seasons’ combined experience coaching track and field and football. His track and field teams won two section championships in the last three years. Dirth also was on the coaching staff for Apple Valley’s state championship teams in 1986, 1991 and 1992.

Lundin resigned because she is moving to Astana, Kazakhstan, where her husband, former AVHS hockey standout Mike Lundin, will play for Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League. Mike Lundin played for the Ottawa Senators last season after playing for the Minnesota Wild in 2011-12.

Shelly Lundin had been on the AVHS volleyball staff since 2009 and was head coach in 2012.

Burnsville High School is seeking a softball coach for the second consecutive year after declining to renew the contract of Aaron Vail, who coached the Blaze to a 9-10 record last season.

Vail, who announced on his Twitter account that he would not be back at Burnsville, said the news took him by surprise. His previous coaching stops included North St. Paul High School and Dakota County Technical College.

New Balance Nationals

Danielle Anderson of Eagan High School competed in two events at the New Balance Nationals track and field meet last weekend in Greensboro, N.C.

Anderson placed 11th in the girls 5,000-meter race in 17 minutes, 12.53 seconds and was 19th in the 2-mile run in 10:52.46.

She is scheduled to run the 5,000 in the USA Track and Field Junior Championships this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.

Earlier this month Anderson placed second in the 3,200 meters and eighth in the 1,600 at the state Class AA meet at Hamline University. She will go to the University of Minnesota in the fall and compete in cross country and track.

We still have baseball

In Minnesota, there’s little if any downtime between the end of the high school baseball season and the beginning of the American Legion season.

This weekend the Burnsville Cobras will hold their annual Snake Pit Invitational at Alimagnet Park. Burnsville will play Blue Springs, Mo., at 7:30 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the Cobras will play Andover at 9 a.m. and Eden Prairie at 7:30 p.m. The final round of the tournament will be Sunday.

The Cobras have to do without Tyler Hanson and Cooper Maas for at least part of the weekend because they will play in the Minnesota High School All-Star Series on Friday and Saturday in Chaska.

The Cobras consist of most of the 2013 Burnsville High School baseball team, which finished second in the Section 3AAA tournament, plus college players and BHS alumni Bo Hellquist and Tyler Hill. Burnsville was ranked second in this week’s state American Legion baseball poll.

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With the support of an in-kind donation from Dakota Aggregates, the city broke ground on a new three-field athletic facility on the northeast corner of Akron Avenue and Bonaire Path earlier this week in Rosemount. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

If there’s one thing people know about Rosemount, it’s that kids like to play sports and the city is attracting new families.

The growing popularity of lacrosse and soccer has left the Rosemount Area Athletic Association scrambling for space in recent years.

There was a record number of 9- and 10-year-old teams for traveling soccer this summer, and that number is expected to rise.

“As we grow, we’re going to be, at minimum, double in size over the next few years,” Rosemount Parks and Recreation Director Dan Schultz said. “Our comprehensive park plan shows us building 10-15 more parks. Some day we’ll be the size of Apple Valley and Eagan.”

Rosemount currently has about 28 parks, but Schultz said he envisions 20 more parks “if we continue to see the development planned for Rosemount,” he said.

Finding places for all those families to play has been a challenge for RAAA.

“They’re capped out,” Schultz said. “They have to double up on facilities and shift people around. When you double up, it increases the wear and tear on the field. It just compounds the problem. We want to make sure we have enough (fields) and our staff does a good job of keeping the fields in good shape.”

Greens spaces are in high demand in Rosemount for soccer, lacrosse and football. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

One of those parks is becoming closer to reality on Flint Hills Resources-owned land on the northeast corner of Akron Avenue and Bonaire Path.

Last month, Rosemount received an in-kind donation from Dakota Aggregates of $280,705, the estimate of the work they will do to grade the future 57-acre athletic facility, along with the sand and gravel. Work on the project started on Monday.

The facility with have three 240-by-360-foot green spaces for soccer, football and lacrosse.

Earlier this year, city staff discovered a thin layer of clay underneath the site, which would have caused several problems with water drainage, erosion and soil quality. The discovery forced the estimated costs for the project to grow to more than $1 million with additional drain tile and topsoil considerations, but the donation brings the total to approximately $800,000.

The Rosemount City Council approved the financing through the capital improvement program. Friedges Landscaping Inc., from Lakeville, was the lowest bid and was awarded the project earlier this week.

If all goes as planned, the city will seed the land by late summer and the fields should be ready by 2015.

There’s still space at UMore Park and Flint Hills-owned land for further expansions. There are two ball fields by UMore that should be operational soon.

“We’ve got all kinds of projects,” Schultz said. “We have lots of residential development, including three more neighborhood parks as well as trail projects.”

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Joseph Lee Branham, 43, used a baseball bat to damage the vehicle’s windshield and passenger side mirror, according to the criminal complaint.

On Feb. 28, witnesses told police they heard the commotion at the business in Eagan, and one alleged that Branham admitted to damaging the vehicle.

Branham now faces the felony charge of criminal damage to property in the first degree, which has a maximum sentence of five years and $10,000.

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Lakeville police responded to a report from social services in a different county alleging that an 11-year-old girl reported Robert Eugene McKinstry, 63, had inappropriately touched her during a visit a few weeks prior.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim alleges that “McKinstry was scratching her back (when) he moved his hand around to her front and began to touch her left breast. McKinstry next began rubbing her butt over her pants.”

McKinstry allegedly said it was an “accident” that all he did was “slap her butt,” the criminal complaint said.

McKinstry was convicted of felony criminal sexual conduct for similar behavior with another young female relative in 1989.

The gross misdemeanor charge of criminal sexual conduct in the fifth degree holds a sentence of up to a year in prison and $3,000.

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