On Monday March 12th at 7pm, the Whitney Young Girl’s Soccer Team kicked off their season against Maine South but did not get the result they wanted. The team was anxious and excited to play their first game of the season and for a couple girls on the team it would be their varsity debut. Maine South is known for always having a good soccer program and that mental block was in everyone’s minds.

As warms ups began before the game, so did the snow. Flurries came down on the girls in thick clumps. The snow covered the artificial turf, making the field incredibly slick. In the huddle before kick off, you could see the nervous energy radiating off of everyone and that same nervousness appeared in the game. Within the first minute of the game Maine South came at the Whitney Young Dolphins hard.  A through ball was played over the head of the left outside defender during the first minute and thirty seconds, the center back could not catch the winger from Maine South running onto the ball. That resulted in the first goal of the night and put the Whitney Young team inside of their own heads. While the team looked good and played decently, everyone was too focused on trying to not make mistakes than actually playing the game. Co-Captain, Mia Lisanti’ 20, described the game as, “a learning experience to better prepare ourselves for our conference games.” One of the other captains, Sophie Putrim’ 18 said, “the first couple goals really got inside of our heads. While this was the first game and we were working out the kinks of not playing with some of our teammates before, we were defeated before the game even ended,” when asked about how she believed the game went.

The Whitney Young Girls Soccer Team lost 5-0 to Maine South. It was not result the girls wanted to start the season, but they are hopeful for the upcoming games on Friday against Glenbrook South, Saturday against Glenbrook North, Monday against Northside, and for the many upcoming games of the season.