On November 15, the Lady Patriots lost their semi-final State soccer game against Shorecrest with a score of 3-4. It was a hard-fought match, with both teams battling for the lead until Shorecrest managed to pull ahead at the end of the game. For the women, last year’s 3A State champions, falling just short of winning State again was a disappointment.

“We felt like this was our year. We went into that game thinking ‘We can’t lose’,” junior Sydney Abel said.

Still, the girls refuse to let a sour end spoil the entire season. Instead, they are choosing to focus on the teams accomplishments this year. During the regular season, the Lady Patriots had their fair share of ups and downs, winning a total of seven games, tying five and losing three. However, the team stuck it out, and won the last two games of the regular season.

“We were peaking at the perfect time. We just improved so much from the beginning of the season to the end,” junior co-captain Jordan Hemmen said.

This season in particular required a lot of effort for the team to come together. Ten of the players from last year’s State-winning team graduated, and two others were out with injuries, leaving just nine returning players. All season the veteran players worked hard to bring all the new players together, including the three freshman players on the team: Makena Carr, Sydney Willoughby, and Sydney Agrosino.

“I feel like everyone is one big family: we work with each other, we’re kind to each other, we always support each other through everything,” Agrosino said.

Having strong freshman players on the Varsity team is a unique opportunity that will help to build a stronger team in the future. The players continue to come back and improve each year. And many of the soccer players are already looking towards next year.

“I think we are going to have a solid team next year. We are losing six seniors, but the majority of the group is going to be playing together another year,” Hemmen said.

Next year the Lady Patriots have made it their goal to continue to grow as a team, rather than to simply focus on winning it all. This isn’t to say, of course, that they don’t have their eyes on the prize.

“We want to win State,” Abel said. “But with that being the main goal, [we want] to just take each game one by one. Every game we want to get a win.”