The Lady Warriors’ varsity soccer team took on the McNeil Mavericks on Friday, Jan. 25. After the loss in their previous game against Round Rock, the team was eager to reclaim their winning streak.

“Pretty much, we just tried to ignore it [going into the game],” Claire Tinker ‘19 said. “It’s a different team, different game, different day, different conditions, for sure. Just learn from the mistakes, put it out of our mind, and move on. We took a lot of steps forward. One of our big things is making no old mistakes, and we did that.”

At the start of the first half, Colleen Wyrick ‘21 placed a corner kick in the center of the goal box, but the Lady Warriors were unable to score on the resulting scramble. A through pass to Madison Larrea ‘19 led to another strong attempt off of the set piece, and finally, Deepti Choudhury ‘21 sent the ball to the back of the net off of a corner kicked by Wyrick.

“I played a position that I normally don’t play, so I was a little out of my element, but it was fun,” Wyrick said. “We still have to work on communication, that’s our biggest thing, but we’re getting better every game. We want to keep winning, keep improving, keep scoring, and keep the shutouts.”

The Lady Warriors presented a strong defensive front as well, with pressure from Claire Tinker ‘19 ending almost every promising Maverick attack. Tinker was a commanding force in the back line, which left goalkeeper Madison Broadbent ‘21 with little to do.

“Personally, I try to repeat the word precision [when making a tackle],” Tinker said. “I play the furthest person back, so if I miss the ball they score, unless Maddie makes an amazing save. When I go in for tackles, it’s either I win it 100 percent and if I don’t, then I have to foul the other person.”

The first half concluded after promising runs from Autumn Koch ‘19, Madison Larrea ‘19, Lauren Kolodzinsky ‘21, and several close shots by Hailey Martinez ‘21 and Wyrick. Leah Zahm ‘20 and Tinker held down the defense until the whistle blew for halftime with a score of 1-0.

“I think we played really well,” Anisha Chintala ‘21 said. “We kept attacking their back line, and we never stopped playing hard.”

The Lady Warriors pressured the Mavericks heavily at the beginning of the second half with multiple close shots. Throughout the entirety of the half, Wyrick landed corner kicks precisely in the middle of the goal box, including a deflection that the McNeil goalie was just barely able to get her hands on. Koch also had several close calls on breakaways, but was unable to put any of them in the back of the net.

“I think the game went really well,” Wyrick said. “We connected a lot more passes than we did last game, and we worked really well as a team.”

Near the middle of the second half, Larrea kept her composure as the keeper stepped up to pressure her and scored a shot to the corner of the goal, making the score 2-0. The Mavericks were quick to counter with an attack, but the resulting shot flew over the crossbar. The Lady Warriors didn’t falter, returning with several through passes that were just too long to get a shot off of. The game concluded with a score of 2-0.

“I was definitely relieved [when I scored],” Larrea said. “We were dominating most of the game, but we just couldn’t put it in the back of the net. It felt good to get at least one more.”

The varsity girls’ soccer team will play their next game against the Vandegrift Vipers on Friday, Feb. 1 at Vandegrift.