The Allen High School varsity girls’ soccer team is starting off their season as strong as they can this year. The team consists of mostly upperclassmen who are ready to lead the five sophomores and three freshmen. One month into the season, the team has an overall record of 9-1-1 with 10 games to go.

Pre-season brought five wins, one tie and one loss. The team was only defeated by the 5A state and national champions, Highland Park High School. However, they plan to remain undefeated throughout the rest of the season.

“I plan to push our players on and off the field in both soccer and in school,” senior Natalie Wodka said. “I want our girls to be well-rounded student-athletes. As a captain, alongside Ally Jackson and Emily Russell, we are keeping our team on track and keeping state in the back of our mindset. We need to keep positive attitudes, but also make sure everyone is doing their job.”  

The team is adjusting well to losing the five seniors from last year’s 2017 season and still have a strong bond that has not wavered, despite the changes the team has gone through this year.  

“I do think as a team we will work really well together,” sophomore Haylee Spray said. “We all have good, close relationships with each other and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

The team now has 18 upperclassmen and having those more experienced players should benefit the team in their attempts to win state.

“I think because most of the team last year was young, we now have an advantage because most of us are now experienced and know what to expect at this level,” senior Ally Jackson said.

So far this season, the varsity team has won all four of their district games, defeating McKinney Boyd, Plano West, Plano Senior and Denton Guyer high schools. This year, the girls said they plan on breaking the two year “curse” of not being able to make it to the third round of playoffs, and hopefully make it all the way to a state championship title.

“Our coaches have seen many glimpses of greatness and they keep repeating how special this year’s group really is,” Jackson said. “[The coaches] expect great things.”

Despite high hopes for this season, Wodka says the girls are still fine tuning their play and assessing the weaknesses that could keep them from making it to state.

“Our biggest weakness currently is always starting the game off slow and not being 100 percent ready to compete for the first couple minutes,” Wodka said. “We have been working on this and it has progressively gotten better.”

Sophomore Melanie Guillermo says that many of the girls plan on continuing to play soccer in college, with already 10 girls who have verbally committed.

“This season, I’m most looking forward to getting closer with all of my teammates and soaking in all of my last moments on and off the field of being an Allen Eagle soccer player,” Jackson said.

With a strong team that has great chemistry, the girls are prepared for a successful season.

“Honestly, this year my fellow captains and I won’t need too much to get this group of girls to really want to make it to playoffs,” Jackson said. “We will give our best advice and pointers from past experiences, but overall, most of us are just waiting for playoffs and to get the chance to play for the state title.”