PREVIEW: Lake girls soccer

The Lake girls soccer team has experienced some unfortunate luck with injuries over the past year, but third-year head coach Lauren Colangelo is excited about her team.

“What excites me the most is our young talent, the numbers that we have, the numbers that I know we have coming in,” Colangelo said. “It just excites me that we have so much potential for growth, and so much potential for success hopefully from here on out.”

Last year, the team lost star scorer Savannah Little for much of her junior season due to an injury. She returned for the final five games as she rejoined fellow junior Brooke Wiley as the team’s lethal 1-2 combination. Wiley was ultimately named a First Team All-NBC selection.

While Little is back for her senior campaign, Wiley was lost for her senior season due to an offseason injury, and Lake will have to find a way to adjust.

“Losing Savannah last year was obviously detrimental for its own reasons, but there was hope of her coming back,” Colangelo said. “The injury wasn't as long of a recovery time, and Brooke kind of had to fill in with a new role that she's never played before. In my opinion, she was one of the best defenders in this area that I've ever seen play, so then finding out that she was hurt, and given the severity of the injury, there was really nothing that we could do. We just had to, as crazy as it sounds, we just kind of had to move on. We have to have that next man up mentality.”

In addition to Wiley’s absence, Lake lost Penelope Garcia, Tabitha Balsmeyer and Kaydence Eckenrode due to graduation. On top of that, the junior trio of Serenity Cappelletty, Allie Byington and Kyla Miller aren’t returning.

Little, however, is joined by defensive midfielder Tessa Heckman in a two-member senior class, and they are joined in a returning group of players that includes juniors Madelyn Osborn, Honorable Mention All-NBC Morgann Blandin and Kallie Ferrara.

“With Brooke having played more of a defensive role, that's maybe one of the areas that we're the weakest in my opinion,” Colangelo said. “Offensively we have threats across the field. With Savannah being out last year and having some of those younger kids stepping in, it kind of balanced out a little bit. I'm not sure if we have somebody coming in that can fill Brooke's role, but we're going to figure it out.”

On top of that, this year’s sophomore class all returns from last year, including Honorable Mention All-NBC selections Macey Maguire and Sagan Schroyer, as well as Kali Kos, Paige Allen and Belle Tippey. Colangelo expects that entire class to be impactful this year. As of preseason, there were also 11 freshmen who signed up.

“We have a huge freshman class, which is awesome,” Colangelo said. “Their roles might change quicker than what we thought it was going to.”

Some of those freshmen who have stood out are defender Sienna Blank, utility Maddie Solomon and utility Payton Brickner.

In fact, Brickner is competing with sophomore Peyten Tallman, who competed for the JV team last year, for the starting goalkeeper job in place of the departed Cappelletty.

“It's difficult to find a replacement when you build up that chemistry,” Colangelo said. “Especially with a goalkeeper, you get kind of used to their style of play and things that they like and dislike, but we have a couple goalkeepers who have definitely stepped up, and they have been putting in a lot of work. I'm excited to see it all kind of come to life.”

Lake went 8-6-3 overall last year but finished 4-1 over the final five games with Little in the lineup.

“We definitely came off of a season of a lot of growth and a lot of learning,” Colangelo said. “We will carry some of that momentum with us. There are a lot of league-heavy games in the first half of our schedule, and we only play everyone in the league once, so it matters a lot more than it did when we were playing everybody twice. Our league is extremely strong, so we see a lot of really good competition right off of the rip.”

Colangelo expects Little and Heckman to both play huge roles as seniors.

“Good Lord willing, they all stay healthy, those two will stay on the field the entire time,” she said.

On top of that, Colangelo is pleased with the team’s close nature.

“Something that has been really noticeable to me and the team itself, they've brought it up a lot, is just the chemistry that we have,” she said. “It’s a much closer group this year, which is nice to see. They seem like they're playing for each other. There's great bonding. They're very encouraging and uplifting. Especially when we're as young as we are, that's a great quality to have because it kind of leads the way for these younger kids.”