by Whitney-Marie Halaby ‘14

The girls’ varsity soccer team started off the season strong with three consecutive victories: a 1-0 win over Northwest, an 8-2 rout of Magruder and a 5-0 hammering of Seneca Valley. As is the case in sports, the quality of competition tells a lot about how a team is truly doing, and the Warriors faced stiffer tests when in their next two games when they played four-time state champions B-CC, followed by a match against an experience Damascus squad.

Although the Warriors lost to both teams, both games finish (a 1-0 loss to B-CC and 2-1 loss to Damascus) were competitive to the finish. The Warriors bounced back after those matches with a 2-0 win over Clarksburg to bring their record to 4-2 through their first six games.

The season-opening win against Northwest was filled with drama, as it took a goal in double overtime from junior Lauren Woods to give the Warriors the victory.

For the season, the Warriors have scored 17 times in the first six games they have played, with Woods leading the way with six goals and five assists. The Warriors have also gotten help from their goaltending, as junior ‘keeper Samantha Berger has tallied three shutouts.

The Warriors clearly are responding well to first-year varsity Coach Danielle Rosanova, who took over for Jon Vuckovich. As last year’s JV coach, the transition to a new coach has been smooth since Rosanova was already familiar with many of the players. She wants to instill a winning attitude and a work ethic into the team, and she feels that those two attributes will allow the team to continue their success this season and into the playoffs.

“As the season continues I am looking forward to us continually improving,” said Rosanova. “We have such potential to be very successful this season and I am hoping the players see this as well. We have a few things to tweak as the season progresses, but what is important is that we are peaking at the end of October as we prepare for the playoffs.”