2015 Girls' Soccer
Well, here we go again, perhaps. We embark on this 2015 season hot off a 20-Win-1-Loss-#6-in-the-US-5th-straight-state-title season. That is as good as we have ever been. But we have to say goodbye to 3 major starters in Missouri State's Mary Disidore (All American) at center midfield, Benedictine's goalie Ellen Loughman (All Metro) and 20-goal scorer, Kelly Sweeney (All American). That's a lot to say goodbye to.
Within this crazy streak, however, we have always had to say goodbye to some very, very good players. So here we go again.
It will start with defense. We do return our defense in its entirety, except for our goalkeeper. We had thought we would be good there with understudy, sophomore Sammy Little ready to take over that spot. But now after who-knows-how-many concussions she is very doubtful for the season. Figuring out that spot will have a lot to do with our ability to keep this thing going.
We do return left back, Sarah Tyler, centerbacks, Hania Crow and Taylor Reynolds (Southern Illinois), and right back Molly Schmidt (Benedictine). So wow. We even return our backups on defense like Mckenna Sneed and Michaela Stompoly. We bring a couple of fine freshman defenders, like Alex Moss, into the program as well along with some very good returning JV defenders from last year.
At the midfield with the loss of Disidore, we look to become capable of playing a variety of formations, especially ones that sport two defensive center midfielders. We return ALL LEAGUE Maddie Holmes (11 goals) and we also have Kristina Colling (UCM) who played some big minutes for us last year. We would also have the options of moving Crow up. So we look for many ways to stay excellent defensively and to keep our transition to the front of the field from the back of the field strong.
We also know senior Olivia Meyers (10 goals, Benedictine) will be in the center of the midfield, no matter what formation we play. We also bring back Addie Denning, Mary Sesti (William Jewell), Jessica Paisley, and Rachel Speckin at the midfield. We do bring in freshman Margaret Pigott who had a strong summer camp for us as well. So the middle third of the field should be one of our strongest areas.
Going to goal, we have the best in the city, and perhaps the best in Saint Thomas Aquinas history in Jamie Kutey (Marquette). She returns for her senior season as a 2-time NSCAA All American and only a few goals shy of STA's all time goal scoring record. With the loss of 20-goal Kelly Sweeney, though, we will have to find players to compliment Jamie's play up top. We return sophomore, Katelyn Heying and juniors, Sarah Petty and Sophie Geiger, along with senior Abby Kwapiszeski (Benedictine). We look to get some production out of all of them.
If we can solve our goalie opening and find a second goal scorer we may live up to our preseason ranking. We will have plenty of chances to prove ourselves with Mo-Kan where Top 5 in the country St. Teresa will be and defending 6A State Champion BV Northwest; our Catholic Challenge weekend with Divine Savior and our trip back to Iowa for the Tournament of Champions.
We return our entire coaching staff from last year (Chuck Hammons, Brian White, Jessica Brown, Erin Ellefson, Bryan Turner, Ron Brown and Will Ragsdale), some key stability. Jessica will have some major input into this season's success as she attempts to get us a varsity goalie ready to replace All Metro Ellen Loughman.
We do have a very strong returning cast, a cast who seeks to go where no girls' team in Kansas Soccer has ever gone before: VI is the goal which only happens with a VIctory in Topeka at Hummer on May 30th.
