Everyone knows that Friday nights are reserved for football—it’s just the American way of doing things. But here at Liberty, we have two more weekdays set aside for a sport that dominates the standings in Washington: the Liberty womens soccer team.

Last year we watched as the Lady Pats blasted through their regular season matches and then proceeded to beat Kamiakin 2-1 and claim the State Championship title. This year, the Patriots are trying to repeat last year’s success and come away with a second Championship trophy to put beside the first.

“We want to win State again, and we’re going to do everything in our power to do so. We’re not going to get into the mindset that we won last year and that we deserve it, we want to think of ourselves as the underdogs and that we’re going to work for it,” senior co-captain Kelley Johnson said.
So far, the team has been following through on their plan. The soccer team first faced Bainbridge and came away with a 2-1 victory, following that up with another win against school rival Hazen by a total of 7 points, and then beating Marysville-Pilchuck 3-2.

The game against Lake Washington saw a minor setback with a loss of 0-1, but the team came back strong with a 4-0 win against Juanita and a 1-1 tie with Interlake. Patriots fell just short of a tie with Bellevue in a 3-2 loss. Mercer Island and Sammamish saw two consecutive 2-2 ties, followed by a 3-0 loss to Lake Washington. These games were then overshadowed by a strong 5-0 win over Juanita last Tuesday.

“We’ve really come together as a team this year with such a new squad,” Johnson said. “We’ve learned a lot and I’m excited to see what the rest of the season is going to bring.”