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Lady
Wave junior Ashton Kester makes one of her many saves Monday
against Springfield. The Wave wanted to send lone senior Michela Colby
out with a win on senior night but fell 3-0 to the Wildcats. CNO Photos
by George Starks
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Lady Wave falls
on senior night
By George Starks
GREENVILLE- For 18 minutes, the Greenville Lady Wave played Springfield
even.
At the high school level, it takes 40 minutes to produce a win, not 18
as Greenville well knows.
Monday, the Wildcats dropped a 3-0 loss on Greenville in the final
match of the year.
Greenville wanted to send its lone senior, Michaela Colby, out with a
win but it wasn’t to be.
“We wanted to send off Michaela in a good way but we just didn’t make
the plays at the end of the night,” said Lady Wave coach Steve Shepard.
“At the end of the night, we should’ve made the plays and we didn’t.
They did, three times. I think this is the first time we’ve been even
on shots but they (Springfield) are like us. They are growing to and
the biggest difference is they have six seniors on varsity and we have
one.”
On a night went both teams were up and down the field, it was the
Wildcats that struck gold with 12 minutes left in the half on a corner
kick by Kia Nelson.
That goal was enough to hold up the rest of the night but the Cats
struck again in the second half at the 33:47 mark then again with 10:21
left in the game.
“We just didn’t control the ball the way I would have licked,” said
Shepard. “I thought we could take our chances and possibly outrun them
and maybe bust through their defense on speed but it didn’t happen. We
lost too many 50/50 balls and that’s the story of the year. We’re
getting better but we have so far to go.”
If Shepard has one positive to look at, it’s the fact he will have
eight seniors and seven juniors on next year’s squad as well as a host
of sophomores.
The only question is how many freshman will he have and will he have
enough kids for a junior varsity team?
“I’m looking forward to next year,” said Shepard. “I think next year,
we will be in contention in a lot of games. The people around the
league knows we’re coming. It’s been a learning experience for us and
we had a load of sophomores come on this year with no experience. I
sure wish we’d had some junior varsity games for these kids because I
don’t like throwing them out in these high level varsity games. They
get torn up and run past and it’s no fun for them”
Shepard continued to look toward the off season.
“I’m going to start hitting the junior high pretty hard,” said Shepard.
“I want to go to some of the elementary schools to talk to the teachers
to work on soccer. I hope to have enough kids next year for a junior
varsity team. We’re only five or six kids away from that junior varsity
team.”
Shepard said if any oncoming freshman would like to play Lady
Wave soccer, they can contact the athletic office or can call him at
937-313-7339.
“It’s never too late to start to play,” said Shepard.
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Sophomore
Kayla Arnold defends against a Springfield defender.
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