Head Coach: Ben Maxwell
Last year’s record: 11-2-1
Recap: The team finished second in the league and qualified for CCS but lost in the first round.
Key Matchups: Fremont and Milpitas
Star Players: Seniors Misha Singla and Keatyn Spendlove
Key losses to graduation: Hillary Gonzalez, Anika Kapasi, Asheeka Noronha
League: El Camino
Prognosis:
Last season, the team qualified for CCS by finishing second in the El Camino league with a cumulative record of 11-2-1; they fell 2-1 to The Nueva School in the first round. This year, they chose to stay in the El Camino division due to the team’s smaller size.
Another challenge is that key players such as junior winger Claire Chen and junior attacking midfielder Katherine Lu have chosen to forgo playing for the school team this year to focus on college recruitment opportunities. Playing for an outside club means they can’t play on the school team simultaneously.
On Oct. 9, the team held an interest meeting for potential players — with a turnout of about 20 girls, they talked about rules, standards for the team and expectations from the coach. Tryouts took place from Nov. 4 to Nov. 6. Last year, there was no JV team for girls’ soccer, and this year is still without a JV team due to the shrinking roster.
Still, coach Ben Maxwell said, “We have a really good group of girls, we have a good team, we did really well last year and we think we will do well again this year. We have a really good turnover of players and we’re excited.”
Maxwell hopes to make it to the playoffs one match at a time under the lead of the team’s two seniors, forward Keatyn Spendlove and defender Misha Singla; both are also this year’s team captains.
“I think we’re going to have a really committed group and everyone is going to put in the work,” Spendlove said. “I think we’ll have a really good shot this year at CCS.”
