Soccer teams keep eyes on the future

The Greenwave soccer teams closed out their seasons without going to the playoffs, but both are looking forward to the future and excited for what the teams may do next year.

Neither soccer team made it into the playoffs this year. The boys’ team did not win any games this season while the girls’ fell just short of going to regionals. According to girls’ coach Lance Lattin, they would have gone to the playoffs if they had won two more games.

He said there was lots of parroting in the league this year. While the top three teams definitely stood out, the other teams could have gone either way in terms of which ones could win matches.

“South Tahoe and Truckee are strong teams,” Lattin said. “But after that, anybody could beat anybody on any given day.”

The coach said he feels the Lady Wave got a rocky start to the season and it lead to them not doing as well in the end. Key losses in some matches meant they had dug themselves into a hole by the second half of the season and could not quite pull out in time for the playoffs.

Lattin felt the team learned a lot, though. He said the younger players “started to understand what they needed to do as a team to win games.” He recalled the South Tahoe coach praised the team for how hard and smart they played during their second match together.

“If I was gonna say anything about the whole season as a summary, it’s that we made good progress,” he said. “I think next year they’re going to start off far better than they started this year.”

Other coaches in the league noticed the improvements as well. Lattin said some of the girls were nominated for the all-league team. Savannah Sweeney was selected as a second team defender while Minny Fagundes and Adelle Brown received honorable mentions as a midfielder and goalkeeper respectively.

Only five of the 17 girls are graduating this year. Lattin feels the players who will be returning are very good and show lots of promise. He said they would be farther ahead at the start of next season, compared to when this season started.

While the team did not do well this season, boys soccer coach Miguel Orduna said he could see lots of potential in the players. Given more practice in the off-season, he was confident they would improve and do well next year.

The young team had a rough season where they did not win any matches. There were great plays throughout the season, and the team showed lots of promise; however, their inexperience lead to issues in following through or completing plays — in many matches, there were great shots made on the net, but how the ball was maneuvered around the defenders meant it did not go in.

Orduna was happy with how the team improved, though, and he is looking forward to next season. He said they should do well based on where they ended this season.