Cheney soccer standard raised

It wasn’t the ending the Cheney High School girls soccer team envisioned.

After rolling through the State 2A soccer tournament by outscoring their three opponents by a 12-0 margin, the Blackhawks fell short in the state championship game to Archbishop Murphy 2-0 last Saturday. As disappointing as the defeat was for Cheney, it could not dampen the accomplishment the team had for the entire season.

“At first I was a little disappointed after the Archbishop game, but in the end this was the best we had done in the four years we had been here,” said senior striker Kellie Zakrzewski (pronounced zak-shev-ski). “It’s impressive. I’m pretty happy with it.”

“After we lost, I was disappointed,” said senior left outside back Tanya Baker. “The fact was they were a really good team. This was the best we had ever done. My goal was just to make it to state, and we beat that, and making it to the championship game was a dream right there.”

“It was really difficult, it being our last game in high school,” said senior center back Chelsie Breen. “It’s nice to go out on top of what we had done in previous years. We finished third our freshman year. Overall, we set our goals higher. At first, we just wanted to make it to state. Then we wanted to get in that championship game and we made it there. It was a very successful season.”

The Blackhawks ended their best season in school history at 20-2, having won 19 in a row before the championship game loss. Cheney won the Great Northern League title with a 13-1 league mark, losing only to Pullman in its second game of the season. The success the Blackhawks enjoyed this season was fueled by their camaraderie off the field.

“We’ve been playing since 12 for the (Spokane) Shadow,” said Baker. “We played rec (recreation soccer) together. We had team dinners to bond. We decided as a team to keep setting goals and try to become a strong powerhouse. Our freshman year, we finished third in state and we’ve returned to state all four years of our high school careers. We hope that they do well next year.”

“If we had not done all the things outside school, we would not have been as closely bonded or as tight as a team that we are,” said Zakrzewski. “All the time we’ve spent together has really paid off. I’ve enjoyed it.”

After winning the league title, the Blackhawks played the first two rounds at home in Cheney, rolling past Prosser 5-0, then beating Ellensburg by the same score in front of vocal and enthusiastic fans. It was a scenario that seemed unlikely four years ago.

“When I would go to football games and basketball games, I kind of wished that our fans would get as energized for our games as they would the boys’ games,” said Zakrzewski. “When we got to the state playoffs, having them out there helped a lot because it pumped us up out there. It got me going for sure. They were excited about us being there, and we were to be playing for all those people there.”

“It was an amazing experience to have all of those people out there for us,” added Breen. “The CHS boys and the guys with their shirts off, that was just funny. The families were doing a lot for us. They made signs.”

Last Saturday’s game wasn’t the last for any of the three seniors. Zakrzewski will play soccer next season at Seattle Pacific University, Baker will stay home to play at Eastern Washington, and Breen will head to the University of Idaho to further her playing career. The three hope their success over this season and the last four years will continue at Cheney.

“I guess we feel like we started a legacy,” said Breen. “I didn’t hear a lot about girls’ soccer before we came up. A lot of people have come out to support us since we’ve been doing so well. We concentrated on building up our younger players, while maintaining the rest of us. As long as they work next year, they should be able to keep it up.”