3 for 3 on the Week; remain undefeated
After a good start to the week on the road, the Nolan Catholic Women's Soccer team returned home to host SPC powers Hockaday and Trinity Valley. On Tuesday, the Lady Trojans from Trinity Valley came on campus and the Lady Vikings quickly got on the board in the first 2 minutes of the first half and the first 6 minutes of the second half and then added one more insurance goal.
Sophomore, forward, Avery Hutka was involved in all 3 goals. Bella Tankersley scored the first one off a cross from Hutka, and assisted the 2nd one. The third, was scored by freshman, Savannah Meyers.
Lady Vikings Head Coach, Jay Fitzgerald on the Trinity Valley result:
This was a game we needed in the pre-season to work on our culture, basically how things look, feel, and sound. Proud of the buy-in from our group.
The JV took to the road and finished 6 goals of their own with 2 goals from Lilly Martinez, in her first game back from injury. Vic Watson, Macie Parker, Emma Delgado, and Isabella Hernandez each scored one as well.
Last night was a bit different as the Lady Vikings hosted Hockaday, who have won several SPC state titles to date. The Hockaday Daisies lost to St. Johns from Houston in the State Championship match last season.
The JV got the night started off right with a 5-2 win over the Daisies scoring from a variety of different roles and players. Five different LVSers scored in route to the victory including Vic Watson, Macie Parker, Lilly Martinez, Isabella Hernandez, and Izzy Van Zanten. The 11, 9, 10, 7, and 6 all scored on the evening.
The varsity followed up that JV performance with a win of their own. Laci Earixson had all 3 goals, scoring her first "hat trick" of the season. The first one coming off a corner kick in the 9th minute from Savannah Meyers and her second, in the 19th minute, off an assist from Bella Tankersley.
Junior, Forward Laci Earixson on the team:
I think coming into this game we were ready to play and focused. We worked tremendously hard on the little details we needed to fix and the result shows that. Going into district play next week we just need to treat those games the same and take care of business the way we know how to.
Earixson capped off the evening with probably one of the best goals of the season in the 49th minute. The build up involved 6 players starting with a back pass to sophomore, goalkeeper, Alle Steining. Steining played return pass wide to Grace Gnatovic who played centrally to Olivia Tankersley. Tankersley bumped a first time ball back out wide to Katherine Gilpin who then took the space up the line playing a well timed pass to Paola Vazquez. Vazquez cut inside with her touch across the face of the outside back and slipped a ball through the center backs to Earixson coming through the midfield. Earixson took the pass and touch toward the goalkeeper and just chipped the ball over the oncoming goalkeeper, putting the game out of reach for the Daisies.
Fitzgerald on the effort from his team:
I couldn't be more proud of this group. The respect we have for Rod and the Hockaday team is through the roof. We beat a very good team who has had some quality results to this point and throughout each season they play. We beat them because from back to front we are very good and we have a very good understanding of our style of play. We don't give away goals not just because we have a really good goalkeeper but because we have great leaders through the spine of the team. Leaders that hold themselves and teammates accountable on and off the field. Three games in 4 days is not ideal but the habits that we have built whether it is a training session or a game are similar. We love our culture.
The Lady Vikings improved to 6-0-3 on the season and Steining has 5 shutouts on the year with a 0.50 GAA.
Steining on the result:
We put in the effort and stuck to our style of play and we got the result we were looking for.
The Lady Vikings start district play next week traveling to Liberty Christian on Tuesday and hosting All Saints on Wednesday before taking off to Florida for the National Elite Prep Showcase Dec. 19th-21st.