The varsity girls’ soccer team is looking for an improved season after a 4-9 campaign last spring.  Last season was marked by impressive wins, such as victories over strong programs like Woodgrove High School, and gritty losses to other respectable teams like Briar Woods.

This year, the team is characterized by senior leadership and experience paired with young, raw talent. This is an important aspect to any winning team, according to senior Carrie O’Foran, a three year-member of the varsity team.

“We have a pretty strong team with a lot of seniors, but also an impressive amount of younger girls who bring a lot of new skill, so I’m hopeful for our chances this year,” said O’Foran.

Having nine seniors on the team is beneficial, but this group of girls has cohesion. These seniors have been playing together for years and know one another’s strengths and weaknesses.

“A lot of us have been playing together for years, both on high school and club [teams]. Having that many seniors who work well together and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses is great  because we know how to play off each other better than if we just all started playing together a week ago,” said O’Foran.

O’Foran looks to make a playoff run after the regular season ends, something this group of girls has not done in their time on the varsity team at Potomac Falls.

“Our goals would be to make it further than previous years’ playoffs. At least while we’ve been here, we’ve never won the first game of playoffs so it would be awesome to go further,” said O’Foran.

To make this playoff run, the team must improve its game in many facets. The largest area to improve upon is the mental game, according to O’Foran.

“The team can improve  by not getting down on ourselves if we get scored on or if the other team starts gaining momentum. Staying calm and pushing back is somewhere I think we can work on,” said O’Foran.

The team is looking to win games this year that it might not have won last year, such as contests against tough opponents like Briar Woods, Stone Bridge, or newcomers in the Conference. After conference realignment, there are new teams that the Panthers have yet to face. These games against new opponents are circled on the team’s schedule.

“There are a couple new teams in our division we’ve never played so I’m not sure about them. Last year, the best teams in our division were Tuscarora or Stone Bridge, who we’ll face again,” said O’Foran.

Although the Bulldogs of Stone Bridge are a talented team, O’Foran cherishes the memory of a game against them last year as one of her favorites as a Panther.

“[Stone Bridge] is a very strong team and we played really well against them. We are able to tie them 1-1 after overtime with several starters missing for club tournaments. Everyone was so pumped afterwards, it felt awesome,” said O’Foran.

After three seasons on the varsity team with some of her closest friends, O’Foran, the other tenured seniors, and the young talent all look to make a playoff run at the end of this season.

Key games: Woodgrove (home ) 3/25, Tuscarora (home) 4/21, Stone Bridge (away) 5/15