Tonight was our Senior night celebration. We are fortunate to have 9 seniors this year. Ellie Beldowicz, Kayla Gage, Reese Ludwig, Maddy McGettigan, Alexa Pikul, Maddie Ritter, Audrey Rogan, Kinsley Smith & Amber Yuan.
This years group has had great on field success in the 4 years but I think their impact on the program has gone above and beyond playing the game. Since freshman year they have been diligent, hard working, mature and unselfish. Their investment into our program over the last 4 seasons and the success we have had in that time is not an accident, it's truly a product of the environment they have helped create, as seniors this season they have shown a great ability to lead through their actions on the field in practice and games, and their maturity and care off the field for their teammates. Everyone's role on the team has been different but their support for each other and the team is evident in what they do. Tonight's game was a reflection of them as student athletes and we were all very happy that they got that experience for senior night.
Sometimes the actual game is awkward when you have 9 seniors, some play in similar roles, and in our case we have 2 senior GKs. We were able to start the game with Reese in goal and Ellie on the field. For the first 10 minutes of the game Ellie was one of our better players, she connected every pass and almost got on the end of a through ball, I think her adrenaline was running high and everyone was rooting for her to score. I thought we dominated the possession and about halfway through the first half we were able to take the lead when Kinsley Smith hit a long free kick to the back post for Isabel Diaz to finish, that gave us some confidence and we added a second a few minutes later when Sarina Igval scored on a shot from out wide. At half time we were really happy with our play and wanted to start the second half quickly. We were able to do that when Sarina's corner found Bella Lanza on a header and then again when a scramble led to Audrey Rogan finishing well.
Ryan came back strongly and scored a really nice goal from the left side but after that I thought we did a nice job controlling the game, limiting their chances and creating some good moments.
All of our seniors played really well tonight, what was really pleasing is that they showed a desire to make the adjustments that we talked about in practice and that fed through to the other players, and I thought our performance reflected that. We finish the season with a 15-2-1 record, something that I think we can be proud of but that also gives us some confidence as we head into the playoffs.