‘Bring it every game’

There’s a new rule for girls soccer teams in the Greater Spokane League, University High coach Kevin Houston said.

“The parity in the GSL is amazing,” he said. “You have to bring it every game. There are no nights off in this league any more. You cannot let down against anyone – we found that out last year and it cost us dearly.”

Parity applies in the Spokane Valley as well, where East Valley reached the Class 3A playoffs a year ago and both Central Valley and University figure to be in the race for the Class 4A playoffs once again this season.

“We’ve come so close to putting it all together the last couple of years,” Houston said. “This year we’re hoping to avoid the injuries that got to us early last year so we can go a ways in the playoffs.”

Central Valley coach Brandon Deyarmin feels the same way.

“We just missed reaching the playoffs last year and the year before that,” he said.

Central Valley Bears

Deyarmin has the largest senior class of his four-year tenure at CV, and the nine-player class is determined to set a high standard for their teammates.

“We really don’t have one player who has really taken over as a team leader,” he explained. “They’ve all taken turns leading drills and leading our stretching sessions. They’re all sharing the duties.”

Seniors Jenny McKinsey and Molly Nordstrom both played key roles in the midfield for the Bears last year, as did forward Lindsey Pavlischak and Janelle Moore.

“We’re a bit more of a finesse team,” Deyarmin said. “We’re not going to go out and play what you would call a real physical game with people.”

One area where Central Valley looks to excel is in conditioning.

“We’ve worked really hard for two weeks and we’ve been conditioning hard,” Deyarmin said. “Conditioning always pays dividends, especially at the end of tough games, and I’ve got a bunch of girls who just go out there and run all day long and never let up.”

Five juniors and four sophomores round out the varsity roster.

“We have some good freshmen who will contribute to the program down the road, but I didn’t bring any with me on varsity this year,” the coach explained. “I guess that’s good for the program.”

East Valley Knights

East Valley reached the first round of the state playoffs last year behind a gritty group of seniors.

“We were hit really hard by graduation,” coach Jeff Rose said. “That’s a hard group to replace, but we’ve got a lot of talent and I think we’re going to be pretty good once again.

“I’ve got a group of really talented freshmen who are going to have an impact on this team. I have five of them on varsity right now and I’m going to bring one more up to make it six.”

The Knights return senior Megan Como in goal and senior midfielders Kayla Perno and Kelsey Hentges, who will fill the shoes left by last year’s senior leaders.

Juniors Kaylyn Plumb and Kylee Williamson, a defender and forward, respectively, already are three-year starters.

“The way we play soccer here at East Valley, we try to play the same 11 players a lot, so we had some really good players sitting on our bench last year,” Rose said. “They’re anxious to get out there and play. They’re ready to get out there and play.”

University Titans

A starting soccer team has 11 players, and Houston has 10 of his starters back from a year ago.

“I knew coming in what I had and I spent the first couple weeks looking for players to fill in some specific roles for this year,” he said.

The Titans are doubly dangerous up front, where both senior Tonya Schnibbe and junior Rachel Lopez are accomplished strikers.

“Rachel really stepped up and filled in when Tonya went down with an injury last year,” Houston said. “I think we’re all pretty excited to have both of them healthy and on the field at the same time. You can’t overplay Tonya any more because Rachel is so dangerous and capable of scoring and vice versa.”

Seniors Alex Marquard and Katie McElroy anchor the Titans in the midfield while Kayla Miller has emerged as the team’s defensive leader in front of senior goalkeeper Alli Meyer.

“Kayla has really stepped up as a leader,” Houston said. “She’s the kind of player who leads by example and I think the rest of our defenders appreciate that.”

West Valley Eagles

“I really like this group,” West Valley coach Shelli Totton said. “These girls aren’t afraid to come out here and work hard and they love to compete.

“I’ve had some good, competitive teams here, but this may well be the best team I’ve had.”

The numbers game works against West Valley, the smallest school by far in the Greater Spokane League, but Totton’s teams have a reputation for playing hard.

“We always come out and play hard and compete hard, but we have to eliminate that tendency to let down for 10 or 15 minutes at some point of the game and let things get away from us.”

The Eagles will be led by seven seniors, including returning starters Allie Allen and Lindsay Hood – who each took on leadership roles with last year’s squad.

“They did,” Totton agreed. “We’ve been young the last couple years and those juniors from last year had to step up.”

Senior defender Katie McCollum and senior goalkeeper Rachel Wendt also return.