Girls’ soccer: Falcons look to fill the gaps left by Class of 2016 players

Head Coach: Ben Maxwell

2015-2016 record: 12-4-5

2015-2016 recap: Reached CCS semi-finals for the first time in two decades

Key Additions: Right center back Ellie Pickard, freshman goalie Adrienne Chan

Key Matchups: Los Gatos

Star Players: sophomore right centerback Sasha Pickard, junior midfielder Chloe McGhee, senior left wing Emily Chen

Key Losses (players who graduated): Isa Berardo, Lauren Plesse, Kim Chen, Lauren Maia, Kaitlyn Chen, Sabrina Clark

League: Santa Clara Valley Athletics League, De Anza League

Prognosis: “I think the season is going to be very different from last year, we lost a lot of players, so the chemistry is something we will have to work on, but we got strong defenders and goalies that will add to our team to help us during the season. The style of play will be a lot different from last year, but I still think we will find success in our season,” McGhee said.

After losing many of their key players, the girls believe that they will face a tougher challenge than last year to make CCS, but are looking to beat the odds.

“I think it’s going to be a lot different of a dynamic, because we lost eight great players so we are going to have to fill the spots,” McGhee said. “But I think if we work on our fitness and technical aspects of it all we will be a strong team.”

Sophomore right centerback Sasha Pickard said the team can also learn  from last season’s success.

“We lost a lot of girls with talent, but we still have a ton of our varsity players from last year, and a lot of JV players that have moved up, along with some promising freshmen,” she said.

Sasha’s younger sister, freshman right centerback Ellie Pickard, said the freshmen are working “extremely hard to fill the holes.”

Sasha also said that the team has been incorporating new and more intense training drills, leading to better results.

“I think we truly stepped up the training from last year,” Sasha said. “We’ve done a lot of fitness, and possession drills, making sure we are keeping our shape.”