By Kyle LoJacono
The Land O’ Lakes girls soccer team has made the playoffs 12 of the last 13 seasons, but something is a little different as the squad enters this year.
For the first time in nine seasons, the Gators (1-2) are a defending district champion. They won the Class 3A-District 7 crown, the program’s first district title since 2003, while going 14-7-3.
“The best thing was that they really worked for it,” said Vicky King, the only coach in the program’s 26-year history. “They had to work for it, so it meant so much to them. They know how long it’s been, so it was like, wow, we did something no one expected us to do, and teams that came before us that were maybe noted as better teams couldn’t do.”
Being a defending district champ does come with some outside expectations, but junior midfielder Georgia Allen said it doesn’t change much internally.
“I feel like people expect us to go farther than we did last year, but the thing is we always want to go far,” Allen said. “It’s not like it’s more pressure on us because we always want to make the playoffs and win in the playoffs.”
King said the program’s history makes them a target no matter what they did the year before.
“It wouldn’t matter if we are a defending district champs or anything else,” King said. “Whenever someone comes to play us because of our tradition, they play their best. It’s hard to ask 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds to play their best every day, but that’s what we look for. We have a large squad this year, and if someone is having a bad day someone else can come in and play for them.”
Land O’ Lakes’ title run came while replacing 13 seniors from the year before.
“People didn’t think that we were going to be good,” said junior midfielder/forward Catherine Gray. “They expected us to lose and not go far, but we proved them wrong.”
One of the biggest tasks last year was remaking the defense.
The Gators had only one returning backline starter last season, Kelsee Larson. Almost no one else had ever played defense with the program before.
King moved a couple players back, worked in some younger ones and added Holly Nasello, whose family moved from Jacksonville, to the backline.
“Mitsy Audate and Holly are still in the back, and we’ve got some players who will complement them,” King said. “We’ve got a little bit of experience there, and the other players we’ll put back there have a lot of playing experience. Not a lot of high school experience, but a lot of high level club.”
Nasello, a senior, said having a good number of the defenders back will help early on.
“Last year we didn’t know how to work together as a defense at the very start, but we got it pretty quick,” Nasello said. “We lost two of our defenders, but, yeah, we do have a lot of the defenders back, so we should have a little bit of an easier time with that.”
The defense also benefits from the return of senior goalkeeper Arie Bailey (146 saves, 13 shutouts).
Last season, Bailey took over in net for Tara Marshall, who was not only a four-year starter, but is also Bailey’s first cousin. The current goalkeeper, whose parents are Land O’ Lakes graduates, knew all about the program’s tradition years before attending the school.
“I’m definitely more confident then I was at this time last year,” Bailey said. She added, “It was great, but I was really scared that I was going to mess up the tradition. It was exciting to help them win districts.”
The squad does lose seven seniors from last year, with some of the biggest departures coming up top.
Gone are leading scorers Alyssa Lonsway (11 goals, three assists) and Arielle Le-Tran (nine goals, six assists), and senior Alexa Satmary (five goals, one assist) decided not to play this season.
Among those who will be looked to for scoring this year will likely be Gray (eight goals, seven assists) and junior Brooke Silvest (three goals). Silvest pointed out that there were question marks up top entering last season too, as Lonsway was primarily a defender before her senior year and Le-Tran was coming off a torn ACL in her left knee.
“We did lose Arielle and Alyssa, and they were really good at scoring,” Silvest said. “The thing is going into last year we didn’t even know Alyssa would be playing offense, and then Arielle hurt her knee the year before. … I think we have some players who can really help fill in for the goals they scored last year.”
King agreed: “We got some new girls and young girls who appear to be attack minded, and not afraid to go to the goal. We always try to push numbers up.”
The offense will also benefit from a number of returning midfielders to set up the attack, such as Allen.
“We all have to try hard to replace the scoring from Alyssa and Arielle,” Allen said. “When we see a chance to score we have to take it, and when we see an open pass we need to make it.”
The 3A-7 tournament is at Wesley Chapel Jan. 15 to 18, with the final on Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.
The Gators traveled to Wiregrass Ranch Nov. 5, but results were not available by press time. They host district rival Wesley Chapel Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
—Follow Kyle LoJacono on Twitter: @Kyle_Laker
Land O’ Lakes roster
No. Player Yr.
00 Ariana Bailey Sr.
0 Hannah Miller Sr.
1 Maci Galan Fr.
2 Colby Batchelor Jr.
3 Holly Nasello Sr.
5 Caitlin Matthews Fr.
6 Lindsay Pearl Jr.
7 Marissa Lewis Sr.
8 Sarah Dowler Sr.
9 Georgia Allen Jr.
10 Zoe Pointer So.
11 Lacy Nasello Fr.
12 Ashliegh Williams Sr.
13 Lauren Arrabito So.
14 Sotiria Tsilionis Fr.
15 Raquel Villareal Jr.
16 Catherine Gray Jr.
17 Sarah Smith Jr.
18 Makenzie Fish So.
19 Kameryn Kailimai So.
20 Mitsy Audate So.
22 Savanna Ronk Fr.
24 Brooke Silvest Jr.
