Girls' Soccer Ties Against Strong Milton Squad

Girls’ varsity soccer tied 0-0 with Milton Academy on Saturday, bringing Exeter’s record to 2-5-1.Adjusting to several injuries and missing players, the team had changed its formation for the game against Milton. It had one playing up top, four players on defense, five in the center with two wings and three in the middle, forming a triangle. Three injuries had occurred during the preceding game: senior and co-captain Grace Pratt sprained her ankle, and uppers Anna Reaman and Lauren Arkell injured their legs.Senior Hannah Gustafson felt that the team adjusted well to the new positions and players. “Everyone had to talk a lot more to make sure we stayed organized defensively and had good shape when moving the ball up the field,” she said.In practice, they have been working on dribbling the ball up the field instead of relying on passing. According to upper Louisa Bartkovich, this “huge success” has helped the team gain confidence with the ball. “I think the team played really well given that we played with a formation or line up of people that have never played with each other yet,” she said. She also thought the two teams were well-matched on Saturday.Upper Samantha Weaver agreed. “We were very evenly matched with Milton,” she said. She added that they “fought hard” throughout the game, and despite the fact that they had several chances to score, “the ball just never made it into the net.”This difficulty scoring against Milton can be attributed to the team’s emphasis on defense. Lower Ogechi Nwankwoala thinks Big Red can work on keeping “a scoring mentality.” She said that they tend to “sit back” and prevent the other team from scoring, adding, “which we do really well.” However, the girls then don’t have many attempts to score themselves because their focus is solely on defending. “I think it was hard to score for us in our game [Saturday] because we didn’t take many shots and the shots we took didn’t go in,” she said.

“I think it was hard to score for us in our game [Saturday] because we didn’t take many shots and the shots we took didn’t go in.”

Several players acknowledged that Big Red needs to work on its finishing, something it also struggled with last year. Senior and co-captain Daniela Nemirovsky said that this weakness made it challenging to score yesterday. “We had good chances, but couldn’t capitalize on them,” she said. However, she thought they adapted well to their new formation, using it to effectively play defense.Gustafson agreed saying, “I think the biggest thing we need to improve upon in games is finishing.” She explained that during some games they don’t shoot enough, leading to their inability to score. “We need to also take better advantage of the opportunities we get and focus when trying to put it in the back of the net.”Throughout the season the girls have gotten closer in both their friendship and team dynamic. Nwankwoala said they know each other better than they did a month ago. “We know how each other plays and who plays well together and we’ll just keep improving from here,” she said. Postgraduate Kat Cucullo mirrored her sentiment saying, “We’ve been connecting more throughout the season, so hopefully we will just continue to improve.”The team’s next home game will be Thursday, Oct 13 at 4:45 p.m. against Pingree School.