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Girls soccer: Cowgirls open season in national top 10
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
Reloading is nothing new to Coppell's girls soccer team.
But with a squad that sent five players to the Division I level last season, the Cowgirls have even bigger shoes to fill in 2013.
Fortunately for coach Chris Stricker, there is still talent and experience on the roster for the Cowgirls to attempt to qualify for the postseason for the 14th consecutive year.
"Anytime you lose players like that, you never know what is going to happen," Stricker said. "I mean how do you really replace a Lindsey Meyer? But we still have a lot of good pieces and experience. If we play like we did this past weekend, I think we're going to be just fine."
That weekend included a 2-0-1 mark in the National Elite Prep Showcase hosted by Nolan and Southlake Carroll, including wins over Clear Lake (5-1) and Bishop Lynch (1-0) with a draw against Liberty of California (0-0). Coppell had a variety of players chip in the scoring act, another positive in Stricker's mind.
"To be successful, we're going to have to have different girls step up and be difference makers," he said. "We don't have a bunch of superstars, but we have a lot of pieces. Coming into the year, my biggest concern was if we were going to be able to score against quality teams. Scoring five against Clear Lake was a great sign."
Leading the charge against Clear Lake with a pair of goals was sophomore forward Sarah King, while junior forward McKenna DeLong also found the back of the net.
"Sarah and McKenna are our go-to forwards," Stricker said. "And we've already seen other girls like Tara Vishnesky do some scoring."
The strength of the squad may lie in the midfield, where senior captains Kayla Peterson and Paige Jacobs return. Rounding out the midfielders and with varsity playing time in the past are junior Reagan Meyer, sophomore Liat Evan and junior Jackie Nichols.
"Paige is our rock there," Stricker said. "She's so creative and has great vision. And she's an important player from a leadership position."
Experience is not as present in the back, though sophomore Grace Vowell and junior Evan Ross have some varsity time. Freshman Kristen Racz has also impressed on defense, while Cami Studebaker plays both midfield and defense.
"We're kind of an old-school defensive team," Stricker said. "We want to attack with them a bit, but never more than one. We always want to have numbers back.
"In Fort Worth, we only allowed one goal all tournament and that was with three new starters on defense. I thought it would take some time for the new players to work well together, so I was really impressed. It's exciting."
While Coppell has plenty of talent, they are working with a smaller roster than usual.
"We wanted to keep some of the younger players on the JV so they can get more playing time," Stricker said. "We want to maximize that, but we can still draw them up if we need to and there is still pressure on the varsity players to perform if they want to hold onto their spots."
Stricker added the smaller numbers puts an added emphasis on fitness.
"The girls are in great shape and we're pretty healthy other than a couple of nagging injuries," he said. "It's a little tougher during the tournaments when you are playing a lot of games, but as a coach, just having a couple of subs makes it a lot easier."
Coppell has set its sights on a district title and then some but that could be challenging in a District 5-5A that includes two other teams currently ranked in the top 10 nationally (Marcus at No. 3 and Flower Mound at No. 9).
"No matter what we lost, our expectations are always high," Stricker said. "We go into every match thinking we are going to win.
"Our goal is to win a district title and we have the philosophy that if you are competing for district, there is a pretty good chance you'll make the playoffs if you don't win it."
On Monday, Coppell continued in non-district with a 4-0 result over Parish Episcopal.
DeLong, King, Nichols and Ross each recorded goals in the win.
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