At the beginning of the fall 2012 season, the lady bison soccer team was anxious to see how the season would play out. Nobody thought the team make it all the way to a second round of playoffs, but, indeed, this happened. Although they had a fair share of struggles and setbacks, the team fought through the hardships, and made this season a special one.

Finishing with a 9-7 regular season record, this team has had more wins this year than a girls bison soccer team has had in awhile.

Only a few weeks into the season, many girls on the team faced injuries. The office of athletic trainer Brian Warner could be seen filled with girl soccer players after school every day, just waiting to get taped up and iced before practice. As a result of these in- juries, the team even resorted to play- ing games with positions on the field unfilled.

In addition to injuries, the team had a rough start because many members were young and inexperienced, num- bers were low, and their schedule was filled with formidable opponents.

Commenting on these obstacles, junior Alex Somogyi said, “I wasn’t expecting this year to be as successful as we were. Coming into the season, I looked at the schedule and became worried. But after our first preseason game, I knew I had nothing to worry about because we would grow as a team.”

Having such challenges in mind, the girls set their sight on improvement and growth from the start.

Sophomore Lexi Stovsky reflected upon their team’s humble beginnings, saying, “From then on, the team saw how much we needed to focus to achieve what we wanted this season. The freshman girls began to see what it was like to play on a soccer field with very skilled varsity players.”

The improvement of the team was unmistakable. They learned important lessons of teamwork and perseverance along with improving their soccer skills and level of experience.

“Our team learned to play with each other and for each other,” expressed sophomore Jamie Rotsky. “We improved tactically, of course, but we really learned how to play with a great deal of heart for 80 minutes straight.”

During conference play, the team certainly surprised the competition by their skill and capabilities by upsetting some very talented and even undefeat- ed opponents.

Head Coach Skupniewicz stated, “It wasn’t a surprise to me, but we happened to surprise a lot of other teams and people with the way we played. We’re a team made up of mostly underclassmen and even with that we did very well in our conference.” She continued, “The teams we beat in our conference had one loss or were undefeated. We beat Wickliffe, Brooklyn, and Independence, who we haven’t beaten in a very long time.”

Regarding the win over Independence, Lexi Stovsky commented, “The team really understood what we need- ed to do to come out of the game to win. It was a win the team wanted re- ally badly, and we made this happen, winning 2-1.”

Even with these feats, the team faced disappointment. The lady bison put in an immense amount of effort, but could not defeat their conference rival, Kirtland, in the second round of playoffs. Losing to this team previously in the season, the team ended with a loss 2-1.

However, as this season came to a close, the girls are already looking ahead toward the prospects of the next year.

With optimism and confidence, Jaime Rotsky commented, “This season opened a huge window of opportunity for us, making next season look even brighter.”