Jeannette girls soccer sees progress, improvement

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 | 8:15 PM

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Jeannette forward Haily Rundle called the first week of training camp the best she has been involved with in her four years.

Jayhawks coach Brian Sniverly had a similar assessment, and that’s because of the returning experience and a boost in participation.

After years of fighting to keep sufficient numbers, the Jayhawks have 19 girls on the team and return eight starters.

It’s made for a crisper start to practice as they prepare for difficult Section 1-A, which houses defending WPIAL champion Greensburg Central Catholic and defending PIAA champ Shady Side Academy.

“In the past, we’d have a healthy 11 to 14 players, which made it hard to simulate a game in practice,” Sniverly said. “We could do 6-on-4 offense versus defense, but you really can’t work on advancing the ball and moving it up the field. This year, we’ve been able to simulate how we want to work the ball up from the defense, to the middle third, to the strikers and where to create the passing lanes. In the past, the first time we’d see 11 on 11 is in our first scrimmage. We should be a little more prepared going into our first game, opposed to taking a few weeks to get the proper conditioning that is needed to get up to game shape.”

A lack of numbers last season became worse for Jeannette after a rash of injuries, including Rundle, who missed most of the season. Jeannette was down to nine players, but got reinforcements to field a team.

Jeannette took its lumps, finishing 2-16 overall and 0-12 in section play, but it found a scoring threat in Dymond Crawford.

A standout basketball player for the Jayhawks, Crawford joined the team late, but her athleticism translated from the hardwood to the grass. She led the team with nine goals.

“I have been trying to get her to play since our freshman year, and she’s been wanting to, but last year she finally did come out,” Rundle said. “She made a huge contribution to the team. We knew she was going to be good at it, because she’s extremely athletic. Basketball is her main sport, but she also has natural talent for soccer, and she seems to like it a lot.”

Rundle is excited to return. She and Crawford will be paired up top and tasked with leading the team’s attack.

“Dymond is probably the best athlete we’ve ever coached, and Haily is the overall most talented soccer player we’ve ever had in my time at Jeannette,” Sniverly said. “We’re looking forward to having that combination at the midfield and striker positions.”

Abbie Pohl and Alyssa Gabris return at midfield. Alora Dunmire, Hannah Struessing and Sam Shaw return on defense with goaltender Aubree Etling. Shaw was another player who missed time last season because of injury.

Section 1-A is expected to be a difficult again with Shady Side Academy and Greensburg Central Catholic having won every district title since the WPIAL expanded to three classes in 2010. Serra Catholic and Apollo-Ridge were the other playoffs teams, but Apollo-Ridge moved to Class 2A this year. The Vikings were replaced by Springdale, which made the playoffs a season ago, while playing in Class 2A.

“It makes a difference having girls back that know what to expect,” Sniverly said. “When we say that they are playing against a talented team like Greensburg Central Catholic, Shady Side Academy, Serra Catholic or Springdale, they know that there’s Division-I talent on those teams, and that they can’t make mental mistakes against them. We have to play a clean game just to give ourselves a chance or even be competitive in those games .”

The Jayhawks hope if they can stay healthy that they can contend for their first playoff berth since 2005.

“I’m excited to see the difference between this year and last year, because we have a lot more experience,” Rundle said. “Even the freshmen coming up are experienced, because they’ve been playing, rather than in recent years where we had some girls that had never played soccer before starting.

“Usually, we have only like one or two subs, but this year we have a lot of subs, so we’re not going to be a tired team out there on the field.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Jeannette