After it received the equivalent of a punch in the gut in the first game of the season, the Emporia High girls soccer team has recovered quite nicely in the face of adversity, EHS coach John Decker believes.
When one of the Lady Spartans’ leading scorers from a year ago, sophomore Ashley Leihsing, went down with a broken collarbone last Tuesday against Liberal in the Titan Classic in Wichita, many teams might have panicked. However, the EHS athletes kept their composure and came away with a third-place finish at the Titan Classic thanks to a 2-1 victory over Salina Central on Saturday afternoon.
In three games this season, Emporia (2-1) has scored five goals, and all five have come from different players. That makes the loss of Leihsing a little easier to bear, Decker said.
“We’ve got a lot of girls that can score,” he said. “It’s always hard to defend a team that can score with multiple people. That’s why I was so happy about this weekend, is that we didn’t let it (Leihsing’s injury) get to us. We had other people step up and score.”
With eight full-time varsity starters back from a season ago, the Lady Spartans expect to be a more powerful scoring team this season.
That is a change from the past couple of seasons, including last year, when EHS had just three returning full-time starters. This year, there are only two girls on the varsity squad who hadn’t played varsity before the start of the season, which means the experience factor could play a huge role this season.
“We play well with each other and we know what we’re going to do. We communicate well,” sophomore Elisha Shultz said. “Having experience with each other has helped us, and I think it will help us a lot this season.”
But while there are many returnees from last year, two freshmen also are filling crucial roles this season, as Melanie Nuessen has taken the reigns at goalkeeper while Jordan Sosa is a starting forward.
“It’s always nice when you get freshmen in the mix,” Decker said. “When you can plug freshmen into your varsity squad, it’s not only nice for this year, but it’s nice for four years.”
The mix of young and returning talent already has sparked a change in thinking for the Lady Spartans this season. The goals are high, sophomore Rachelle VanGundy said, and a lot of it has to do with the camaraderie within the group.
“We all get along really well and we all want to win and we all work together,” VanGundy said. “I think we all have more confidence with each other.”
“We hope to make it to State ... and it seems like this could be the year.”
The Lady Spartans will play their home opener at 6:30 tonight against Blue Valley West at TRYSA.