The Carson Valley Elements United U14 and U16 girls' soccer teams recently wrapped up a breakout season at the South Tahoe Come Up For Air Tournament.
In their first complete season together, the Elements U14 team demonstrated occasional flashes of brilliance, coming in fifth out of nine strong teams in their Great Basin Youth Soccer League division with a record of 5-5-1.
They also had strong performances in the Comstock Shootout with a third place finish and the Micro 6 with a fourth-place finish.
The back line of Marissa Menicucci, Adri Romanaowitz and Bianca Rodway led the defense.
The midfield was led by Natalie Freitas (two assists, one goal), Amanda Graham (three assists, one goal), Jessica Vega (one assist, two goals), Vinny Cifelli (one goal), Amelia Ritger (two assists) and Sierra Bertolone-Smith (three assists, two goals).
The frontline of Jennifer Gorton (three assists, seven goals), Natalie Flynn (four assists, seven goals) and Lauren Pickering (eight assists, nine goals) was solid throughout.
KK Hobson handled the keeper duties all season.
The U16 Elements were one of the bigger Cinderella story in the league this year.
The team lost five players prior to the opening of the season and was left with only eight players in total with four weeks to go before the start of the season.
It appeared at one time that the team wouldn't even start its third season together, but they picked up three players from South Lake Tahoe.
About halfway through the year, the addition of one more South Tahoe player made a roster of 12.
Even with the toughest league schedule in their group, playing the top two teams a total of five times in just 10 games, the Elements ended the season in fourth place in their U16 division (5-3-2). They took fourth in the Comstock Shootout and fifth in the Rogue Valley Cup.
The team only had a subsititute available in four of its 13 games this spring, meaning that each player played mostly every minute of every game.
The Element defense was led by Natasha Brown (two assists, one goal), Clara Ritger and Melissa Kennedy (one goal).
The midfield consisted of Becca Schweigert (seven assists, one goal), Michelle Lampson (three assists), Lindsay Quintano (one goal) and Bianca Tenoceloti (one assist, one goal).
The frontline of Sam Leal (eight goals), Cecilia Ristau (five assists, 11 goals) and Lyric Harwick (five assists, 10 goals) mixed agility and speed to form a potent offensive trio.
Sara Draper handled the majority of the keeper duties on the year, keeping the Elements in a number of close games.
The Elements are coached by Tony and Krissy Cormier and Fritz Schweigert.
