However, the 16-year-old rural Miltonian — the last line of defence for a perennial powerhouse field hockey squad — hardly had a ‘been-there-done-that’ attitude upon completion of the provincial three-peat in Peterborough.

“In a way, this one actually means more,” said the diminutive netminder of the Guelph-area St. John’s- Kilmarnock Eagles Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours removed from clinching yet another title. “I think we came together as a team more this year as opposed to relying on one or two players.”

OFSAA’s finale was marked with dramatic déja vu for the two-time defending champs, who once again needed penalty strokes to come out on top — this year eclipsing Burlington’s Notre Dame Irish 2-1.

Already being courted by universities on either side of the border, Kennedy surrendered just her fourth goal at the tournament — and ninth all year — on a short corner strike fairly early in the gold-medal game. At that point, she admits, there was some concern that that might be the only scoring done.

“I wasn’t quite sure if we could come back,” said the 11th grader, referring to the fact that SJK didn’t have a clear-cut offensive threat like it did with Canadian Inter-university Sports Rookie of the Year Jessalyn Walkey last fall. “But they picked it up and kept going.”

The top-seeded Eagles would knot things up with about 10 minutes left prior to eclipsing the Halton champs in the shoot-out, with Kennedy turning back the final two strokes to bring three-peat hopes to fruition. This followed a stellar second half in which she made at least a half-dozen key saves.

“I think I improved as the tournament went on,” said the local netminder, who gave up just one goal in an unbeaten round-robin run before backstopping SJK to a 1-0 quarterfinal win against Goderich and a 4-2 decision over Medway in the semis.

Part of a small independent elementary/secondary school where field hockey is a way of life — long before girls reach Grade 9 — Kennedy admits she’s already entertained thoughts of completing high school with a perfect 4-for-4 showing at OFSAA.

“Yeah, I guess the pressure’s on for that now.”