On the heels of knocking off the top seed in the section, the Albert Lea girls’ soccer team’s postseason run ended.

Kathryn Flaherty led the No. 9-seed Tigers in the goal with seven saves, but No. 4-seed Mankato East defeated the defending section champs 3-0 Wednesday in the Section 2A semifinals at Kennedy Field in Mankato.

“We extracted all we could give ourselves and never for a moment lost hope that we could make something good happen for our season,” said Albert Lea coach Rick Barnhill. “That was displayed during our three games at the tournament.”

Mankato East (11-6-2, 5-3-1 Big Nine) led 2-0 at halftime and added a goal in the second half.

During the regular season, the Cougars defeated the Tigers 4-1 at Mankato.

To qualify for the semifinals, Albert Lea (5-10-2, 2-8-1 Big Nine) edged No. 8-seed New Ulm (7-8-2, 5-5 Big South) 2-1 in the first round on Oct. 13 at New Ulm and No. 1-seed Mankato West (13-4, 9-2 Big Nine) 1-0 in the quarterfinals on Oct. 15 at Mankato.

When the section playoffs began, the Tigers had a ranking of No. 70 in Minnesota-Scores.net’s Quality Results Formula. Despite being the No. 8 seed, New Ulm had a lower QRF ranking than Albert Lea at No. 74. Mankato West had a No. 7 QRF ranking out of the 125 teams in Class A.

The upset over the Scarlets was the best win for the Tigers on the season considering the QRF.

Barnhill said he was proud of his team’s body of work in the playoffs.

“I really appreciate the courage our girls displayed throughout the tournament, playing to win and not hiding out in a bunker in front of the goal,” he said. “We discovered that we can play in hostile environments with composure and good sportsmanship with a lineup that included four players at any given time who were in eighth grade or younger.”

Along with the two postseason wins, Albert Lea had regular-season victories over Stewartville (9-7, 4-2 Hiawatha Valley), Red Wing (8-9-1, 2-8-1 Big Nine) and Faribault (3-11-2, 0-10-1).

Five seniors played their last game for the Tigers: Katie Rasmussen, Emma Tewes, Haley Larson, Maryah Hernandez and Nadia Leal.

“Katie and Emma made great efforts to come back from nagging injuries for the sections, and Haley Larson was remarkable in her ability to play from start to finish and be there with her quality play game in and game out,” Barnhill said.

The Cougars advanced to play No. 2-seed St. Peter (15-2-2, 9-0-1 Big South) in the section finals at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

To qualify for the semifinals, Mankato East beat Jordan (1-12-1, no conference) 6-0 in the first round and Waseca (9-8-1, 8-2 Big South) 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

St. Peter qualified for the section finals with a 1-0 win over Northfield (10-7, 7-4 Big Nine) in the semifinals.