Despite falling 0-3 to Woodside Priory in the semi-finals of the Palo Alto Winter Classic 2009 on Dec. 4, the girls’ soccer team maintains their team chemistry by focusing on working harder for a successful season.
“I think we had a great showing,” junior goalkeeper and captain Alex Kershner said. “Our team played with a lot of heart and never gave up, which is what makes Paly soccer so special.”
The Lady Vikings entered the tournament with high hopes and expectations. The team has a string of new members joining the team this year: freshman Erin Chang, sophomores Lily Seedman, Marissa Heirich, Hannah Totte, Micaela Kaye, Mira Ahmad and Mayssen Labidi and juniors Leigh Dairaghi and Emma Lenke, compensating for the loss of veteran players from last season.
Facing last year’s Central Coast Section champions, the Sacred Heart Prep Gators, in the first round, the Vikes came into the game knowing who to guard after taking note of the Gators’ game the previous night, according to senior captain Kelly Jenks.
Kershner felt that overall, the Gators were a powerful opponent for the Vikings, but the end results showed that the Vikings’ hard work paid off.
“Sacred Heart is a great team with a lot of firepower up front, especially with national team player [junior] Abby Dahlkemper and their left forward [senior] Lizzy Weisman,” Kershner said. “The game was a major moral booster because they [Sacred Heart] were coming off an enormously successful season after winning CCS and it felt good to knock them off early.”
After defeating Sacred Heart, 2-1, Paly met Santa Clara High School in the quarterfinals. The game lacked the challenge and excitement faced in the previous game, as neither the Santa Clara Bruins nor the Vikings played their best, according to Jenks.
“We didn’t play our best [against Santa Clara], but Santa Clara had been struggling recently, which is why we won,” Jenks said.
Following the two victories, the Vikings secured another victory against the Aragon Dons in the third match. The 2-1 victory over the Dons garnered respect from the Vikings, according to Kershner, because of the Dons’ determination and drive to win, which led to the Dons’ best game of the season so far.
“I have a lot of respect for Aragon,” Kershner said. “After going down a goal to them in the first half, I think we were a little surprised, but we responded well. In the end we struggled against their physicality and they were tough as nails. Each one of those girls wanted to win so badly and you could see it.”
Proceeding to the semi-finals after their third victory, the Lady Vikings faced Portola Valley’s Woodside Priory Panthers. In a difficult 80-minute game, Paly pushed against Priory’s offense, but in the last 15 minutes of the game, Priory’s junior forward Massiel Castellanos broke through Paly’s defense, concluding the match with a 0-3 loss for the Vikings.
Communication played a huge part in their defeat, according to Kershner, who noted that just scoring goals wasn’t enough to be victorious over their opponents.
“Usually we are more evenly matched, but last night it was all about their forward Massiel [Castellanos],” Kershner said. “She was hitting all her shots, and we just couldn’t find a way to shut her down. One thing we struggled the whole tournament with was our defensive communication, and you can only get so far without talking to your teammates. Against the better teams, just scoring isn’t going to cut it.”
The Vikings still believed in the possibility of a victory despite the loss against Priory, according to sophomore midfielder Lily Seedman.
“She [Castellanos] was hard to deal with,” Seedman said. “I think when we are playing at our level we could beat them.”
After a satisfying first game against Sacred Heart and several victories in the tournament, the girls’ soccer team anticipates a successful season ahead.
“We just need to visualize how we played there and the mindset we had before the game and bring it to our future games,” Jenks said. “We knew that Sacred Heart was a good team, so everyone was very focused. In the following games, I think our general attitude relaxed too much, so we need to grow from that and remember that we always have to go into every game with the same determined mentality against whichever team we play.”
Adjusting to the new members of the team will take time, but Jenks has no doubt that the team will not be easily beat in the near future.
“We have just as much, or more, talent then we had last year,” Jenks said. “If we consistently play the way we played against Sacred Heart, then we can make it far in CCS. That night against Sacred Heart, I thought we looked like the CCS finalists. We just need to be consistent and play like that all the time.”
Fellow team captain Kershner also has faith in the team based on its performance in the tournament.
“I think that we will definitely put up a good run for the league title and of course, as Ernesto [Cruz] says it, ‘this year we are going for the big one,'” Kershner said.
The Vikings will play in two pre-season away games against St. Ignatius and Menlo Atherton at 3:15 p.m. on Dec. 7 and 9, respectively. Before the season officially begins, the team will also play a scrimmage against Menlo School at 6 p.m. on Jan. 1 at Paly. The first game of the season will be an away game against Monta Vista at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, followed by the first home game against Gunn at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 12.