With an impressive roster of 20 experienced  upperclassmen, and a CIF-SS title for the first time since 1982 under its belt, West High Girls’ Soccer is looking to continue the momentum while keeping an eye on the goal at hand:  playing the best possible game each time.  “We definitely want to go as far as we did last year, but we don’t want to be jinxing ourselves,” explained forward Emily Atkinson(12) said. “So we’re just going to take it one game at a time.”  She along with her teammates forward Kaitlin Fregulia(12) and midfielder Samantha Layman(12) are captains of this year’s Varsity Girls Soccer team.

The team played a close first game of the season at home on Wednesday, December 2nd, against the El Segundo Eagles, tying 1-1. The Warriors didn’t start out very strong, which resulted in El Segundo scoring, explained Atkinson.  Several conditions left the team performing less than optimal. “We had the sun in our eyes and were going against the wind,” said defender Devoney Amberg(12). Additionally, seven key players were missing because they were in North Carolina for a national tournament, so people who usually didn’t play were substituted in.

At the beginning of the second half, however, Atkinson scored the goal that tied the game. “We were determined to fight for the win,” she explained.  “Our goalie, Savannah, came out a few times and had some great saves for us. Our passing was a lot better second half too. As for the result of the game, the tie, I wish we could’ve won.”

Layman believed West “could have won because in the last 15 minutes there were a lot of shots on goal but they just didn’t go in.” Nonetheless because it was only the first game of the season, she wasn’t worried about team performance, especially when they were missing players for the game vs El Segundo in particular.  She, like Atkinson, is confident that the Warriors will meet, maybe even surpass the bar set by the team last year.

“This tie only got us all excited and pumped for the rest of the season,” said Atkinson.