Northern 4A girls soccer begins today

There are some questions to be considered before the start of the Northern 4A Regional girls soccer tournament today.

For example, can the Galena Grizzlies repeat as tournament champions with a nucleus of veterans that includes multi-talented midfielder Annie Baxter and goalkeeper Jayleen Chen?

Can the Carson Senators, boasting the North's best record, return to the finals for the third straight year and reclaim the championship they won in 1998?

Can the Douglas Tigers end a postseason jinx and finally capture their first championship?

All three teams will try to take their first steps toward answering those questions when the first-round games are played this afternoon.

Carson (14-1-1), the Sierra League's first-place representative, hosts McQueen (4-9-3), High Desert League champion Galena (13-2-1) entertains South Tahoe (8-7-1) and Douglas (12-3-1) is at home in Minden against Elko (5-7-4) in games that are scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. In the final opening round contest, Reno plays at Reed at 5 p.m.

The semifinals are scheduled for 4 and 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Reed High School in Sparks. The girls championship game will be played Saturday at 4 p.m., also at Reed.

If recent history holds true to form, the games this week will be close and low-scoring. Four of the seven games last year were decided by 1-0 scores, including Galena's victory over Carson in the finals. The same pattern held true in 1998, when five games were decided by 1-0 scores, including Carson's penalty kick shoot-out victory against Reed.

"It's always hard to score in the playoffs, especially when you get to the semifinals and finals, the teams are all pretty equal, there's a lot more pressure and the intensity level is so high," Douglas coach Fred Schmidt said.

Carson's only loss of the season came on Oct. 3 by a 2-1 score at home against Reno. The Senators are 6-0-1 since then, including a 1-1 tie at home against Douglas last Thursday.

"It starts all over now. It's a whole new season, so we'll see how it goes," Carson coach Mike Popp said.

The Senators were the No. 1 offensive and defensive team during the regular season, having outscored their opposition by a 78-9 margin. Erin Stieber (13 goals, 21 assists) was nominated for Northern 4A Offensive Player of the Year and Allison Kop was a nominee for Defensive Player of the Year.

Douglas is 8-0-1 since losing at home to Carson in September, aided by three-year starting goalkeeper Ashley Sulprizio and an offense in which 19 different players have scored this season. All three of the Tigers' losses this season have been decided by one goal.

Now, the Tigers will try to end a string of postseason disappointments. A year ago, the Tigers came in with the North's best record and a school record 16 wins, only to lose in the semifinals on a free kick to Galena.

In 1998, the Tigers saw their unbeaten season end with a 1-0 penalty kick shoot-out loss at home to Reed. They also lost on penalty kicks in the 1997 semifinals to Reno.

Douglas has played in the championship game twice, in 1994 and '96. The Tigers lost the '94 game to Wooster in sudden death overtime and the '96 game to South Tahoe - both on last-minute goals.

This marks the ninth year of the North's large schools girls soccer playoffs. Carson lost to Wooster in the inaugural title game in 1992.