With eight underclassmen on the roster, it went without saying that the Douglas High varsity girls' soccer team was going to go through a period of adjustment early in the season.
The question was how long that would take.
Apparently, not that long at all.
Friday afternoon at Galena's Howell Memorial Tournament, Douglas looked every bit the rebuilding team in the opener against Spanish Springs.
The Cougars scored three first-half goals to race out to a 3-0 lead by halftime.
With shorter 25-minute halves in the tournament, it appeared Douglas would have its work cut out to claw back into the game. When the dust cleared, however, the Tigers had claimed a 4-3 win and carried that momentum through the next four matches to win the entire tournament.
"They shook off the jitters and found their rhythm," Douglas coach Lorraine Fitzhugh said.
Indeed they did.
Douglas got its first goal of the year off the foot of sophomore Natalie Freitas, assisted by her sister Ally Freitas.
Freshman Tia Lyons later got on the board on an assist from sophomore Alex Laing. Ally Freitas scored an unassisted goal and senior Mackenzie Cauley capped the scoring against Spanish Springs with an unassisted goal of her own.
Against Bishop Manogue, Lyons scored the game's lone goal on an assist from Dany Heidt.
Douglas took a 6-1 win over Pahrump getting goals from Alex Laing, Katie Dry and two each from Lyons and Ally Freitas.
Lyons, Natalie Freitas, Laing, Cora Moody, Kyra Barth and Michelle Day each had an assist in the game.
Douglas topped McQueen 4-1 in the semifinals, getting goals from Ally Freitas (assist Laing), Lyons (unassisted), Dry (assist CJ Baumgartner) and Laing (unassisted).
Douglas faced rival South Tahoe in the championship match and came away with a 4-1 win. Goals came from Ally Freitas, Laing, Baumgartner and Barth while Lyons had three assists.
Freshman Breanna Randall had 12 saves in net for the Tigers over the weekend while Christy Harvey had 15.
