New personalities to lead Whitefish girls soccer this season

A four-goal loss in the State A semifinals to an outsider seems like a tough ending to Whitefish’s winning season last year, but the score shouldn’t be taken at face value.

According to Whitefish head coach Roland Benedict, it was the best match his team had played all year — a season where they racked up a 13-1 record, the only loss coming in the state semifinal game. The girls took the positives from the match and now focus on the new season ahead.

The Whitefish girls soccer team graduated 10 seniors last year, six of which were varsity starters. Those seniors had big personalities and a distinctive way of playing; although they’ll be missed, Benedict says the girls coming up are ready to step into their own leadership roles.

“They were big personalities; they were obviously very talented, a very good group of seniors,” Benedict said of last year’s seniors. “The positives are that there’s a lot of players coming back that are very good that nobody knows about… We’re going to be more athletic, more dynamic in terms of speed and power than we were last year.”

The Lady Bulldogs are returning several All-state and All-conference players to the field this season. Senior Maya Lacey what a force on the backline last season, but is transitioning to a new midfielder role. She’s played on the varsity team since freshman year. Senior Brooke Roberts also touts accolades and she will be an attacking force up top.

Senior Maddie Muhlfeld, though hasn’t received recognition, is a consistent performer for Whitefish. Last season she tied for the most assists within the team and worked her way to a starting spot by the end of the season.

“[Maddie] was very creative, very underrated early on in the year and really pushed on and grew… She’ll be a darkhorse the people will struggle to handle,” Benedict said.

The coach also mentioned he expected juniors Isabelle Cooke and Olivia Genovese, who both played in the midfield and up top last season, to perform well.

There are also several sophomores making the varsity squad that will bring talent and depth to Whitefish.

“It’s going to be a new team — we’re going to be better than we were last year in a lot of ways and different as well,” Benedict said.

He added that the Lady Dogs backline will be a new combination of players and they will have to get comfortable with having that responsibility.

Benedict is thrilled to see the talent of this season’s players mature and who will become leaders.

“It’s going to be a learning curve filling those personality gaps in our team and in our program,” he said. “But what I’m the most excited about is you’re going to see new people step up, different sides of someone’s game and leadership you didn’t see last year.”

The Whitefish team will open the season at home against Lockwood on Friday at Smith Fields. Game time is 4 p.m.