Lady Bulldogs seniors ready to lead on the pitch

Despite losing three all conference seniors from last season, the Lady Bulldog soccer team is returning to the pitch reloaded.

“We really haven’t dropped a beat,” head coach Roland Benedict said about his team. “There’s been a good energy and a real hunger. It’s really going to be exciting to see them play.”

Whitefish opened practice Aug. 11, with their first match scheduled for Aug. 29 at Bigfork.

This year’s team will again rely on senior leadership, Benedict said. Six seniors, many of whom played key roles last season, will lead this year’s squad, including Kelly Brown, Grace Scrafford, Lexie Carbo, Pixie Moore, Emma Binstien and Audrey Hyatt.

However, only 18 girls total signed up from soccer this year, down from last year’s 27, meaning some players’ roles need rearranging.

“We do have a good core group, but we’re young in the sense that we have some players that are going to have to play some new roles, that have new expectations that weren’t required of them last year,” Benedict said. “We have a lot of sophomores that are going to need to play some big minutes.”

Benedict said the early practices have so far focused mostly on fitness, with the hope that his players will still be feeling fresh late in the game as the other team tires out.

For the second week of two-a-days, more strategic practices will come into play.

“It’s going to be a long season, so for us to really get after it and have the fitness ability to work at a really high intensity for the majority of the game is important,” he said. “For the most part we’re just getting fit and ready to attack players with our style of play and domination of tempo.”

Last year the Lady Dogs finished with a record of 9-4 and a first-place Northwest A conference record of 7-1. In the postseason, they fell in an overtime quarterfinal match against Belgrade.

Getting back into the playoffs is where his team is setting their sights this year, Benedict said, as well as continuing a Lady Bulldogs tradition of strong, team-oriented soccer.

“Some of the things the girls have talked about is keeping the tradition of playing the style of soccer we’ve been wanting to play, which is possession-based, connecting passes, quality soccer. I think it comes down to what the girls want to accomplish. It’ll be a different team, it’ll be a different style of play. We’re looking to get back in the playoffs, and playoff soccer can be anything,” he said.

For the complete Lady Bulldogs schedule and roster, visit www.whitefishhighschool.org/whsactivities/athletics/girlsoccer.html.