With a team full of brand new players, UC High’s Girls Soccer Team works to improve every day through thick and thin.

   “Every game is getting better. We’re just learning how to play with each other because it’s a pretty new team,” said Senior Marissa Olney. Losing eleven seniors last year, the team has had to adjust and learn how to play with each other. “We’ve just had a couple of rough games, but we’re still learning what works best for us. It’s been trial and error for a lot of it,” said Senior Eliani Suarez.

   After winning the League last year, the team moved up to Division 2, which has definitely affected their game play. Olney said, “It’s been an adjustment for sure, but we’re all kind of being patient with each other and building those small skills and just improving at the pace that we need to.” Junior Sydney Buchanan said, “I think [moving up a division] has made us try to really work harder, and it has changed our mentality and how much time we need to put into our practicing.”

   A typical practice consists of a mix of fun and focused drills. “Usually, we warm up pretty thoroughly so we can lessen the amount of injuries. Then, we go into this drill called rondos, which is kind of like a six versus two situation. Then we do shooting drills, we do passing, or any random drill and usually finish off with a scrimmage,” said Buchanan. Donlon said, “I usually pick an activity to work with the girls where I feel we may be lacking or need some repetition to roll into our games that week.” Suarez added, “It’s a lot of messing around and then going to warm up, and then messing around in warm up. Overall it’s just a lot of fun. We work but we do have fun while we’re practicing.”

   The team is showing great improvement every game, but there are a few standouts from the season so far. “Our best game [this season] would have to be our La Jolla game. We gave them a penalty kick, then 30 seconds later we tied the game 1 to 1 and kept it a leveled game the whole time. We did not let them through,” said Suarez. “We worked really well together, finished our shots and really connected, so I think that was probably our best game so far,” said Buchanan.

   “We competed extremely well versus Patrick Henry. They are currently seeded at the top of our Division and we really made it hard for them. We lost the game, but the girls adapted to a new approach and our game plan was executed brilliantly,” said Donlon. They had their first League win against Mira Mesa on Friday, January 20 with a score of 1-0. “No matter what the score, the team continues to compete. They really don’t give up and never stop playing,” added Donlon.

   The team hopes to win League and advance through CIFs. “I think we’ll end up doing well in League. We’ll probably end up in the middle of the table or hopefully near the top,” said Suarez. Buchanan said, “I think our goal is to just make it to CIFs. But every year our main goal remains to play for the seniors because of how much work they’ve put into our program. We always say, ‘do it for the seniors.’”