The last thing the South Hadley girls soccer team wants is to get complacent.
In 2018, the Tigers put together an undefeated regular season, won their second straight sectional title and played in the Division 3 state championship.
Getting back to that final game is the goal, but getting through the regular season is a challenge on its own.
“Every single team is coming for them,” Tigers coach Rich Marjanski said. “Every team wants to get that win against South Hadley.”
The team earned a 19-0 regular season record last year. It wasn’t an easy feat, but the team wanted more of a challenge coming into this season. The program switched from the Grieve League to the Central League last offseason and now competes against Chicopee, Granby, Hampshire Regional, Monson and Southwick twice each.
“I wanted to make sure that they were getting better teams so when we get to the tournament they are ready to go,” Marjanski said. “To win Western Mass. you have to play some tough teams and be ready to see what they have.”
The team has stepped up to the challenge of a harder schedule. With two games left in the regular season, the Tigers are 16-0.
Although the team has found continued success this season, there were some areas of concern coming into the year.
The graduation of key defenders left the Tigers inexperienced in the back coming into this season. Although new starting fullbacks Jaiden Luis and Hailey Werenski lacked varsity playing time coming into the season, their speed was a major upside.
To accommodate this, the team switched from playing three backs on defense to four. Instead of having three center backs that are focused entirely on defense, the Tigers now have center backs Anna Evans and Amy Hampson patrol the interior of the defense while Luis and Werenski move the ball forward along the outside and initiate scoring opportunities with crosses.
“Our outside backs are so fast,” Marjanski said. “They can actually get down the field and give us some scoring chances. … That’s the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We are a bit faster, so we can get away with a mistake here and there. Their speed does that for them.”
Another thing that makes the team’s offense so potent is the chemistry between the forwards and midfielders.
A lot of players on both units have been on the same team since the third grade. With so much accumulated time on the field, the two groups have the ability to create offense in many different ways.
“It’s like we have a mental connection with one another,” senior midfielder Maddie Doolittle said. “We know what kind of runs will work and what moves we are going to make. We have studied each other’s tendencies for so long that we are able to play off of those when the other team doesn’t know what we’re doing.”
Studying and preparation is a big part of the team’s success. The team watches game film to study their opponent’s tendencies. In practice, the team’s midfielders work on drills that make them fight for 50-50 balls and get into a good position to start an attack.
“We play with three central midfielders and all three of us are expected to win 50-50 balls, no matter what,” Doolittle said. “That’s what dictates the game. Being able to distribute to our offense or play to our defense. It’s really important for us to win the ball off of our opponent’s feet.”
This year’s seniors understand how hard it is to go deep into the postseason.
They were sophomores when the program won its first sectional title. The group saw the work ethic and leadership the team’s upperclassmen had and enjoyed the family atmosphere that they cultivated
In the last few years, the team has made it a point to carry on that family atmosphere with team bonding on and off the field with things like preseason scavenger hunts and filming team dance videos and posting them on the social media platform TikTok.
“(We) have taken in the younger kids and helped them improve,” senior Reese Carey said. “We have taught them some things and we have learned some things from them. It’s a community how we help each other.”
The program blazed through the western Mass. playoffs last season and defeated Blackstone Valley Tech, 6-0, in the state semifinals. South Hadley played Norwell tight in the first half of the state championship, but gave up two second half goals on its way to a defeat.
The team is eager to get back to the state title game, but this year’s team knows that getting there isn’t a given. It’s about the process.
“We take it game by game,” Carey said. “We try and get after (our opponent) right away. That is one of the most important things. We don’t take anything for granted.”