By Lily Stetson
Over the break, the Redwood Girls Varsity soccer team competed in the Garces Tournament in Bakersfield. The girls lost their first game to Edison 0-1 but came back against Sanger 5-1, and Tulare Western 5-1.
Goals in the Sanger game were by Ashley Wainwright, Savanna Saesee, Chelsea Sandoval, Ashley Todd and Jill Nelsen. Goals in the TW game: 2 from Evan House, 2 from Jill Nelsen, and one from Ashley Todd. Savannah Travis had a total of 9 big saves in both those games.
The girls fought hard all weekend to come out on top of the tournament. Elise Hyde, ’22, a first year varsity player, says that the team has “improved their structure a lot and it’s been working because we have been winning a lot of our games.”
Evan House, ’20, says that the girls have been improving a lot since the beginning of the year, and they have been able to experiment with new positions. House mentions, “It’s a lot of fun to be able to try new things so the game becomes even more exciting.” House is very proud of how the girls played this weekend and talks about how talented the members of the team are.
One of the highlights of the tournament over the weekend was Payton Basso, ’20. She was moved to center defender and was able prevent others from crossing to their side. Basso also mentions how much the girls have improved since the beginning of the season. She says, “At first it was a little shaky but we have all gotten better together.” This team will continue to improve and dominate their competition.
The girls lost a tough game against Bullard High School in Fresno on December 18th, 3-2 but have bounced back since then. Goals from the Bullard game included Evan House and Sydney Somavia.
They are currently 13-6-2 and still ranked at the top of WYL as they enter the second half of league and hope to head into DI Central Section playoffs strong and injury free. They play today at home against Lemoore in their first annual Red Card Cancer game to support to American Cancer Society. They will also play away on Friday against Golden West. Both games start at 6.