On March 24, The McLean Highlanders took on the Alexandria City Titans in a heated match. The McLean girls JV soccer team came in ready to battle for their first official game of the season. The Highlanders ultimately took the win, with a 2-1 score to end the game.
“We’ve been preparing by doing a lot of meeting the ball and stepping earlier,” sophomore captain Laila Adams-Christian said. “[We’ve also worked] a lot on shooting, so we can get good outside shots.”
The Titans quickly scored and gained the lead to begin the game. Still, McLean did not let this batter them, and continued to press against the Titans. Soon, the Highlanders scored their first goal, tying the game. Both the Highlanders and Titans had several more close shots, but ultimately ended the first half with a score of 1-1.
“My teammate, Rebecca, had a really great goal,” freshman Cara Erceg said. “She stayed persistent even when there were three defenders on her.”
After a quick team meeting during halftime, the Highlanders reentered the game with spirited determination. The Highlanders soon scored their second goal, by Erceg. The goal reawakened the motivation within the team for the remaining half of the game.
“When we were coming back into the second half of the game, we wanted to see more ball skills and pick their heads up,” coach Annie Daggett said. “They listened and they scored another goal, giving us that win.”
With several more close calls from the Titans, McLean was forced to play more aggressively against the Alexandria City team.
“The girls are also very shy and want to make sure each other shine,” Daggett said. “ We keep telling them, you can shine no matter where you are in the field, especially from far out, [as] a lot of our girls have great, really powerful kicks and they can shoot from way further than they believe.”
However, the Highlanders are still working to coordinate themselves together as a team, as they are made up of a mixture of sophomores and new freshman players.
“The team is a mixture of freshman and sophomore,” Daggett said. “So learning who each other are has been super helpful and has helped them connect passes on the field.”
The team is working hard to combat any difficulties with communication on the field to strengthen their skills and up their future game.
“We can [improve on] trusting each other,” Erceg said. “ The team is very new, but trusting that we can get to the ball and that we can score is important.”
The match ended victoriously for the Highlanders, bringing the team a moment of motivation for their upcoming season. The Highlanders are ready to put in the effort and practice for their upcoming season, and hope to see their goals come to fruition on the field.
“My goal for JV is for them to work on themselves, not only as players, but as students and humans all around,” Daggett said. “They are looking forward to doing that as well, and you can see from our first official game they are starting to connect better and better each game.”
