The first Lakehill women’s soccer season has just concluded under the direction of Head Coach Daniel Bracken. It will prove to be a fantastic foundation for a women’s program that was long overdue. The Warriors had an extremely strong beginning to the season that saw them go 5-0 and outscore our opponents 31-0.
During this strong beginning stretch, the team lost right midfielder Bella Pumpelly for the season due to an injury. The fifth game was a 1-0 win over The Brook Hill School where Emma Bassman left the game due to injury. The Warriors were left to finish the game with only 10 players. The team was forced to play the next 2 games with only 10 players on the field. The first loss of the season came against the eventual district champion, Dallas Christian School. We bounced back with a win over All Saints, but one of our center midfielders, Avery Owen, got an injury that forced her to miss the next 4 games. Even though we were down to only 9 players at this point in the season, we beat Bishop Gorman 8-1 and 6-0 in the next 2 games. Esther Neerman and Kennedy Hall joined the team at this point and helped us beat The Brook Hill School for a second time. This win ensured that we would finish in at least second place in district play. Once again, the Warriors were bitten by the injury bug as Kennedy was unable to play our final district game against Dallas Christian School. The Warriors were back down to 10 players on the field. This epic battle vs Dallas Christian took all of the regulation and most of an overtime period to settle. In the end, the Warriors finished second in the district and secured a first-round bye in the playoffs. We were unable to get a playoff win, but we battled a very good McKinney Christian team.
Our Team was led by team captains and seniors Kayla Ristianto, Hannah Reister, Avery Owen, and Millie Castoldi. Ali Garst had 6 shutouts in 12 games and only allowed 6 goals all season. She also had nearly 30 saves in our final game and made Honorable Mention All-District as a goalkeeper in our district. Our defenders Hannah Reister, Georgia Robinson, Addie Ashford, Emma Bassman, and Esther Neerman are a huge part of those incredibly low goals against numbers as well. Hannah secured First Team All-District on defense. Georgia was Second Team All-District on defense and helped us get to overtime in the district tournament championship game by assisting on the tying goal. The Warriors’ midfield and strikers created and helped score 55 goals in 12 games. Avery made First Team All-District as a midfielder. She also scored 6 goals and had 4 assists in only 5 district games. Olivia Johnston made Second Team All-District as a midfielder and had 4 assists in district. The team averaged over 4.5 goals a game and outscored opponents by an average of 4 goals a game. That led to Millie making Honorable Mention All-District, Evan New earning Second Team All-District, and Maddie Reister and Kayla Ristianto earning First Team All-District on offense. Millie had 2 goals and 1 assist, Evan had 4 goals and 6 assists, Maddie had 6 goals and 7 assists, and Kayla had 20 goals and 5 assists in District play. Kayla was named the MVP of the district.
Kayla, Hannah, Avery, Maddie, and Olivia also earned Academic All-State honors having made All-District First or Second Team and maintaining a 3.2 or higher GPA.
We will miss the leadership and example of seniors Kayla, Hannah, Avery, Millie, and Georgia set for us. We look forward to welcoming next year’s freshman class to the team. Coach Bracken is grateful for the exceptional players, parents, faculty, and staff that made this season so special.