Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you tie, and sometimes you do all three on the same road trip.
The Lowry High School girls soccer squad started the season with a tournament in South Lake Tahoe last Friday and Saturday under first-year varsity coach Misty Stene and went down in the first game against Pahrump Valley 6-4.
“We did well,” Stene said. “We lost our first game, but it was pretty close.”
The Trojans led 3-2 after the first period, with Emily Backus and Ariana Galindo finding the net for Lowry, and both teams repeated their efforts in the second period for the 6-4 final.
The Lady Bucks’ second game on Friday was against Sunrise Mountain and they battled to a 2-2 tie against the Miners.
Backus chipped in another goal for the Lowry girls, and Julianna Gonzalez added the second.
“We were behind in the second half 2-0, and we came back in the last 15 minutes to tie it up 2-2,: Stene said.
On Saturday Lowry defeated Pershing County (Lovelock) with a solid 2-0 victory. Gonzalez had both goals for Lowry in the contest.
“We won one, lost one, and tied one," said the coach. "It was nice to get to see the girls actually play. It gave me a really good insight of where we need to go from here with practices, what we need to work on. Overall, I am very happy with how the girls played, they did very well. They were connecting passes and they were talking, and that is exactly what I wanted from them. Our goalkeeper Clarissa (Olson) had an amazing weekend. She had a lot of great saves for us and did very, very well.”
The Lady Bucks begin Northern 3A 'A' Division play with a five-game road trip. The trip started Friday at Sparks and Lowry is at North Valleys today (Saturday).
Lowry travels to North Tahoe on Sept. 6, Truckee Sept. 7 and Churchill County (Fallon) on Sept. 10.
“I think it is going to be a good game against Sparks, we are working on what our weaknesses were over this past weekend,” Stene said. “I am hoping that we can refresh and fix the mistakes we did make and have a good game. I am kind of glad that we are getting the travelling done and out of the way and then we can have all of our home games at the end of the season and hopefully come out fresher at those games. I am not afraid of us having to travel; it is what it is. Somebody has to travel for these games, we just have to come out and play our game. I looked at last year’s results by game, and all I am looking for is an improvement in the score against each team this time.”
Winnemucca will get its first look at Lowry girls soccer at home when they take on South Tahoe at 5 p.m. on Sept. 13, and then Incline at noon on Sept 14.
“As a first-year coach I am trying to get the hang of it first off,” Stene concluded. “Connecting with the girls and teaching them things that they did not know before, that is what I am looking at. Being able for them to leave this season with new skills and new knowledge that they did not have coming into it. It is a lot of fun. I think that it was a real positive start to the season, I am looking forward to the rest of it.”
