The Kentridge girls soccer team has been all tied up with no place to go the last several years.<\/p>\n
Playoffs? The Chargers have qualified for the postseason just once since 2005. But it hasn\u2019t been for a lack of success. In fact, Kentridge has posted a near .500 South Puget Sound League North Division record (21 wins and 22 losses) during the last four years.<\/p>\n
Ties, however, have been the program\u2019s ultimate Achilles heel. Kentridge has 15 of \u2019em during that same four-year span and has finished either first or second in that category in each of the last four years.<\/p>\n
As the Chargers braced for their season opener this past Tuesday against Auburn, finding a way to win those close games remained crucial, especially for a bunch expected to enjoy a solid breakthrough this fall. The Chargers managed to open with a close win as well, knocking off the Trojans 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 16th minute from Jessica Hendricks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be consistent. We have to be able to put games away,\u201d coach John Gavino said. \u201cThey need the confidence to be able to put teams away.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a loaded SPSL North, the Chargers certainly appear on paper to have the talent necessary to put many of those ties into the win column. Kentridge brings back a North Division-high eight returners, three of whom \u2013 Megan Harader, Kayla Berg and Taylor Hayes \u2013 earned either first- or second-team all-league accolades a year ago.<\/p>\n
Add in returning starters Krystal Daniels (goalkeeper), Molly Shiroishi (midfielder), Shelby Delacruz (midfielder) and Emily Hanna (midfielder), and there\u2019s plenty of reason for the Chargers to be optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very talented,\u201d Gavino said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the team chemistry that they\u2019ve been missing the last several seasons. I think they\u2019ve got this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freshman defender Shayann Glasser, who plays select soccer outside of high school, simply adds to that wealth of talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is very solid, is well rounded, speedy and quick,\u201d Gavino said.<\/p>\n
Kentridge hasn\u2019t finished higher than third place in the SPSL North since 2004, when it took second.<\/p>\n
That could change for the better this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re dangerous,\u201d Kentwood coach Aaron Radford said. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to see the biggest (move up the standings) from Kentridge this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
All it\u2019s going to take is turning some of those excess ties into wins, something Gavino sees as a strong possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur expectations is to make the playoffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kentridge planning on using talent, depth to vault into the elite class of the SPSL North<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}