Stop me if you’ve heard this before…the Spencerport girls varsity soccer team is good. Very good.
The seven-time Section V defending champion once again has found the parts to keep the well-oiled machine moving forward without the hint of even a squeak.
Off to a ho-hum 5-0 start to their 2023 season with allowing a single goal while scoring 25, for the Rangers, it’s just another day at the office.
Case study is their 1-0 double-overtime victory over Aquinas. On-field celebration after the goal followed by a handshake line and then quiet reflection on the sideline before departing to think about the next day’s practice.
“Going into the season, obviously we’re coming off seven consecutive Sectional championships, but this is a new team…we’ve all never played together before,” four-year starting goalkeeper and senior Cate Burns said. “So, we’re just looking for people to step up and really show what they can do out there.
“And veterans like Kendall Mesh, Aleena Solano and myself, we’re just here to lead them and just go into every game thinking it’s another Sectional championship to win.
“We have 17 seniors this year, but we have had a lot of people come up (from junior varsity) and take on a big role and they learn from all the people before them. We have a great program here and everyone wants to be a part of it, and everyone’s invested.”
The Rangers are aggressive hunting down the ball when the other team has it, but yet show sometimes extreme patience when possessing the ball with a precision passing game maintaining possession and waiting for an opening or mistake by the other team.
“Whether it’s a goal kick or a throw-in, our number one goal is to get the ball and hunt it down and keep it,” Solano said. “(The patience) takes a long time to learn and it all comes from trusting your teammates that either they will come to you or that it’s okay to pass it back and re-run it. We know that if we keep our cool and patience, good things will come.”
In the Aquinas contest, the Rangers started seven seniors, one junior and three sophomores. Included among the seniors were four anchoring the back end in Burns, Mesh, Anastasia Barczys and Ileana Cheruiyot.
“The younger players experience it (success) and the players who experience it work hard in the offseason and want to be a part of it and it’s fun to put it together again…difficult, but fun,” head coach Jamie Schneider said.
“We try to put the players in the best formation we can to win every game, regardless of grade level. We have a very deep and talented roster and that’s a bonus for us…and put out the best rotation to try to win the game.”
Junior and four-year starter Lindsay Lenhard leads the team in scoring through five games with five goals and nine assists. Sophomore Liana Tata had five goals, Solano three and senior Ava Sanfilippo two, while sophomore Emily Peacock had one goal with two assists in the early going of the season.
Like many girls soccer alumni before them, several seniors have already committed to continue their playing careers at the collegiate level. Mesh will go to Old Dominion, Burns is heading to Siena College and midfielder Jamie Keens will play at Slippery Rock with more announcements coming.
The Rangers finished last season ranked fourth among Class A schools in New York State after reaching the state semi-finals and they will undoubtedly see their name near to top when the rankings for this season begin next week. But with two-thirds of the regular season schedule remaining, they have been well-coached to not get too far ahead of themselves.
“Every season is new and it’s growing as a new group and finding our own rhythm; it always takes a couple of games or we start really well and then we maybe plateau for maybe one game,” Solano said.
“This group just keeps facing challenge after challenge and we just power through and grow as a team together. If we’re a machine, then we have some great parts.”
