The girls’ varsity soccer team prepares to open its season with some big expectations.

“I want to go undefeated and beat Edgewood in districts,” superstar striker and returning four-year player Bree Ehmer said. “Hopefully we can continue to regionals and even states.”

The team is without star goalkeeper Lauren Mannix and back-up Madison Uhlmeyer, who tore her ACL.

“Until Lauren comes back from recovering [from a broken hip], other players on the team are going to have to step up and go in goal,” Ehmer said. “Currently we are looking to put a field player in goal that has some goal-keeping background.”

Center mid Catrina Carl expressed concern regarding Mannix’s absence.

“I think playing without Lauren backing us up will definitely be hard getting used because she is an amazing goalkeeper, and we’ve relied on her for the past couple years and are used to the way she plays,” she said

Ehmer said she thinks with the new additions this team can go far.

“With half the team being seniors this year there are high expectations for our class,” she said. “However, we did have new younger players that joined the varsity squad that have a lot of potential to help better our team. Allison Gunnel, Danielle Sorgenfrei and Rebecca Lorigan are some of the new varsity player this year that I can see stepping up.”

By Christian Graham