by Sam Smith
Loveland, Ohio – Womens Soccer defeated Mercy Saturday night at Tiger Stadium in a second round District State Tournament match. Number 1 seed Loveland (16-0-1) moves on to Lakota West high school Tuesday to play Lakota East (9-7-1) at 7 PM.
Last year, Womens Varsity Soccer went to the state finals. This year, the team is rising again; placed first in the ECC tournament and 10th in the nation. The Womens Varsity soccer team has their sights set high. Due to their ranking, they were given a by in the first round of the State tournament. The team has now won 16 games, tied 1 and lost none. The next closest ECC competitor, Milford, trailed with 6 wins, 7 losses and 2 ties. In the conference, Loveland ended with a 6-0 winning season. The Tigers are #1 in the Cincinnati Enquirer Coaches Poll with 17 first place votes. In the OSSCA State ranking, the Tigers are #3 behind #1 Strongsville, and Medina and trailed by last year’s State Champions, Walsh Jesuit who beat Loveland in the finals last year 1-0.
The Tigers are #4 in the MaxPreps rankings behind, Strongsville, Walsh Jesuit, Medina, and ahead of #5, Canfield.
“This season has been more than what I expected. I knew we were going to be great, but I never thought we would be undefeated with the difficulty in our schedule. We have exceeded our team goals that we set in the beginning of the year, and have already broken two more school records, along with adding to the ones we broke last year.” said forward, Brice Grieshop.
The Tigers broke a school record, only letting up seven goals in the season. They have also broken the school’s previous record, winning 15 games in the regular season.
“This post season is going to be tough just like last years, but there is no doubt that this team will do anything possible to get back to playing in the Columbus Crew’s stadium and bring home the huge gold trophy.” continued Grieshop.
“I feel super confident because our team in super close and we are all in on the same goal. We are excited to see how it plays out.” said Goalie, Lauren Parker.
On Saturday against Mother of Mercy, Junior Lauren Parker recorded her 11th shut-out of the season. The team has also broken another record only letting up 7 goals in 17 games.
- At 26:50 in the first half, Danielle Kenyon scored off an assist from Brooke Hardin.
- At the 24:41 mark, Rachel Ernst scored on a free kick.
- A second goal by Rachel Ernst to start the 2nd half.
- Tigers led 4-0 with a second half goal by Claire Beran and assist by our Brooke Harden.
- Brice Grieshop scored to make it 5-0 with 26:30 left in the game.
- Colleen Swift scored with 7:30 remaining in the game.
- Tigers win 6-0.
Click for larger view of Bracket
