Maryville girls soccer youth leads squad in successful season start

CRAIG MCMULLEN Missourian Reporter | @NWMSports

Maryville girls soccer reached the halfway point of the regular season in a 3-1 win over St. Joseph-Benton April 17. The match also started a four-game road trip for the Spoofhounds.

Before the Spoofhounds’ next road matches, sophomore forward Jalea Price scored four goals to put her at 12 goals on the season. The show by Price helped give the ’Hounds an 8-0 win over the Cardinals. Assistant coach Courtney Kennedy said Price has made an improvement in her second season.

“Jalea is usually a striker, but we’ve been trying to put players at different positions,” Kennedy said. “Anywhere we put her she is dominating.”

Price carried her performance against the Hornets into the match at Benton High School. The Spoofhounds began the contest with a goal by Price 11 minutes into the match. When the whistle blew for halftime, the score was 1-0 in favor of Maryville. Kennedy said the team had a slow day dealing with some illnesses going throughout the team.

“This game caught us off guard,” Kennedy said. “We’ve had a couple injuries around the team so we weren’t on our

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“I don’t think we should be overconfident because every match is different,” Delebois said. “Against Ouachita it was a close match, we won 4-3, but it could’ve gone either way. We have to be careful and give our 100%.”

The women’s MIAA Tournament will take place April 2123 in Edmond, but the No. 10 Bearcat women will have a firstround bye. They will match up with either fourth-seeded Northeastern State or fifth-seeded Central Oklahoma in the tournament semifinals 10 a.m. April 22.

The RiverHawks and Bronchos will compete for a chance to punch their ticket to the semifinals in the quarterfinals 4 p.m. April 21.

Two weeks ago, the Bearcats defeated the RiverHawks April 7. The next day they defeated the

‘A’ game. We’ve all seen better games and better days.”

Coming out of the halftime break, Price scored again within two minutes to increase the Spoofhounds’ lead to 2-0. Nearly five minutes later, Cardinals freshman Eliana Arambula scored the team’s lone goal and only the second goal the Spoofhounds have allowed in seven matches outside of the Smithville Round Robin April 3-6.

With 20 minutes to go in the second half, Price scored again to claim her 15th goal and fourth hat trick of the season. With the win, the Spoofhounds remain behind St. Pius X in the Class 2 District 8 standings.

Senior goalkeeper Abby

Bronchos 5-2. With that win, the ’Cats clinched the MIAA regular season title against Central April 8. In the final regular season match against No. 23 Augustana April 14, junior No. 3 singles player Tessa Kwakernaak won her match, claiming twostraight sets against Vikings’ senior No. 3 singles player Aleksandra Kistanova after Kistanova triumphed in the first set.

“It always helps when, you know, you’ve already defeated them once, so you know you can do it,” Kwakernaak said about the possibility of playing Northeastern or Central. “If we had lost, we would be a little bit more nervous because we would’ve already lost to them once, and we know the players.

I’d be playing a girl I’ve already beat, so I know how to play to beat her.”

With both teams getting a first round bye, they will play a

P Body Shop

Swink said she has enjoyed being around Price this season and likes what she brings to the team.

“Jalea always has a good attitude whenever she plays,” Swink said. “You can tell she is there to win. She has a great vision of the field, and that has helped us get lots of goals and wins this season.”

The Spoofhounds continue the road trip with three matches against teams with winning records. The next match for Maryville will be against Pleasant Hill 6:30 p.m. April 20 in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. The Spoofhounds have lost four straight to the Chicks.

Swink said she thinks there is one thing to work on going forward to make it a special second

Up Next

MHS vs. Pleasant Hill

6:30 p.m. April 20 Pleasant Hill, Missouri

MHS vs. St. Pius X

5 p.m. April 25 Kansas City, Missouri half of the season.

“I just want to see more communication from our team and develop that on the field,” Swink said. “If we can do that, then we have a chance to go far this season.” ing to be very hard because it is so much different than what the team is used to.

After the Thursday evening match against Pleasant Hill, Maryville will play Pius at 5 p.m. April 25 in Kansas City, Missouri.

“Playing two matches in a row, day after day, is going to require a lot of physical strength and even mental strength,” Delebois said. “We have to stay focused on our matches.” day later than their competition. The bye can provide an advantage when playing in a different environment than the players are used to, especially since it gives the athletes extra time to get used to the environment.

“It’s going to be real hot down in Oklahoma — I’m hearing upper 80s — which we’re not used to,” Rosewell said. “I think, you know, just one less

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CONTINUED FROM A8 day of having to play tennis could be the difference in a real close, 4-3 match.”

A tournament can bring a lot of different variables to the table, including weather, new playing environments and playing multiple matches in the same day or in back-toback days.

Delebois said playing in the conference tournament is go-

Freshman Lauren Kohl had her best tournament of her young career as a Bearcat, with a 79 in the first round and a 77 in the second. The tworound scores from both days in the Wildcat Classic were Kohl’s career-bests. Hoffman said she could not be more proud of her team.

“Everyone was really happy about it,” Hoffman said. “It was fun to do it with everyone there and everyone traveling, so we could all celebrate it together. Even though we only had five playing in the lineup, everyone was a part of that score, through practice and supporting each other.”

As this was the Bearcats’ final regular season meet of the season, they will turn their sights to the

Both teams have their sights set on the NCAA Tournament and winning the conference tournament is the next step to that goal. Conference tournament champions receive an automatic bid into the NCAA postseason.

In Rosewell’s tenure as coach, Northwest tennis has made the NCAA Tournament 41 times (men 22, women 19).

“Well, we want to host regionals, and to host you have to be either the one or two seed,” Rosewell said. “The kids all know that, and we want to bring this thing to Maryville — like we’ve done many years before.”

MIAA Championships. Northwest competed at Eagle Creek Golf Club April 10-11 and finished in 15th place out of 17 programs. The Bearcats will take five golfers to Joplin, and the top-four will be scored. Peterson and Hoffman said this meet is what they have been waiting on all year, and they are prepared.

“We were on that course last week and didn’t play overly great,” Peterson said. “I think we’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. It’s all on the line now. There’s a little bit more pressure with a conference championship opportunity.”

“This team’s meant the world to me,” Hoffman said. “It’s been the best group of girls to be around. Regardless of what happens at conference, I know we all just love each other as people and just have fun together as a group. At the end of the day, that’s really what matters.”

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“Where we are right now, playing to the best of our ability is our focus going into each match,” McGinness said. “Putting forth effort into every point in every match is how you generate better results and also better quality tennis matches in singles and doubles.”

After being on the road for seven competitions, a home crowd will await the Spoofhounds (8-1) in three of their final four matches of the regular season.

Mendez said he looks forward to seeing the home crowd and playing against MEC rivals Chillicothe April 20, Savannah April 25 and Bishop LeBlond May 1.

“We have big conference opponents coming up in individual matches and tournament play, and it will give us all opportunities to show out before postseason play,” Mendez said.

Practice or drilling creates the necessary repetition to form a solid foundation for a consistent tennis match, according to TennisCT. Doing every single drill over and over again, inside and out, can transcend tennis athletes from the high school level to the professional level.

McGinness said the team hasn’t had as many practices lately due to a busy schedule, but when the Spoofhounds do practice, she has them focus on the little details.

“The focus has been the basics and just doing the same over and over again to really refine aspects of their playing style and how they play a match,” McGinness said.