WALPOLE — To truly have a shot at beating Notre Dame Academy of Hingham’s girls lacrosse team, you have to prove that you can run with the Cougars, who possess uncommon team speed.

For the first half of Tuesday’s Division 2 state semifinal, heavy underdog East Longmeadow did just that, and were within shouting distance.

But after that, East Longmeadow found out what everyone who has played NDA already knows: running with the Cougars for 50 minutes is a different story.

NDA pulled away with a dominant second half in a 22-6 rout that was on running clock for most of the second half. The Cougars are now 24-0 and advance to the state final, where they hope to repeat as D2 state champs.

East Longmeadow’s season ends at 18-4.

“Absolutely, I think, especially this team, I think that was why it was a tougher first half for us,” said NDA’s Emma Connerty, who scored four goals. “They kept up. They were keeping up. That threw us off, because we like our fast breaks and pushing in transition. They were with us, and I think that kind of slowed us down. But, again, we just picked it up in the second half.”

It was a balanced attack for NDA, as Siobhan Colin and Jane Hilsabeck scored four goals. Alexa Kenney and Aubrey McMahon had three each, and Carolina Haggerty, Elizabeth Dillon, Taylor Watts, and Reilly Walsh all had one goal apiece.

NDA led most of the first half, but East Longmeadow hung around. The Spartans scored the final three goals of the opening frame, including one from Addy Jordan with nine seconds to go, as NDA only held an 8-5 edge.

But that was as close as the Spartans would get. NDA scored the next 13 goals before the Spartans answered, and it was well over from there.

“We knew that they were going to come out (strong). They were very strong on the draw, very good in transition. I felt like they capitalized on all our first-half mistakes. We got a little careless with the ball, just a little bit too eager with our decisions. They were on every single ground ball, finished every shot. We just needed to make sure we cleaned up our execution in the second half and did a better job finishing,” Notre Dame head coach Meredith McGinnis said.