Hornets show encouraging signs during first week of play

By Matt Le Cren

Despite having only three seniors on the roster, Hinsdale South is expecting to improve on last season's 7-13-2 record.

So getting off to an 0-3 start was a little disappointing for the Hornets, even though they were in the first two matches and dressed only 14 players in Friday's 3-1 loss to Stagg in Palos Hills.

South began the year by losing 1-0 to Lincoln-Way Central on Tuesday and then nearly came back from a 3-0 deficit before losing 3-2 at Evanston the following day.

"We keep in mind that this was our first week really playing together as a team," said junior Meagan McPherson, who is one of seven returning starters.

"I thought we came out really strong the first two games. Last year the scores were not very good [in] those two games, so I thought we showed that we have the ability as a team to play together against strong teams.

"Today's game was obviously a disappointment but we were missing some of our girls. I think the girls that came in, they did their best."

Stagg (4-0-1) outshot the Hornets 15-5 and struck first on a goal by Kasia Gasek with 9:01 left in the first half.

South tied it 1-1 at the 5:10 mark when McPherson received a pass from her freshman sister, Colleen, just beyond midfield and sprinted 35 yards uncontested up the middle to the top of the penalty area.

That's where she juked a Stagg defender by stepping over her dribble and then fired a left-footed, 17-yard shot just under the crossbar.

"You get a few moves that you can do really well and that's one of them that I'm confident with," McPherson said of the step-over, which she had used earlier in the game to get off a shot that was saved by Chargers keeper Andrea Beric.

"I saw that I only had that one girl there and I'm like, 'Okay, I'm doing the move,' and I got around her and there was no one in front of me. I feel like I play more with my right foot, but when I need to take that left foot I can do it."

Unfortunately, McPherson's goal did not give the Hornets the shot in the arm that Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf was hoping for.

Stagg stepped up its domination of the midfield in the second half, grabbing a 2-1 lead on Gasek's second goal just 2:01 after intermission. The Chargers made it 3-1 with 28:13 remaining when Gasek set up Sarah Mussellen's goal.

"[McPherson] got the goal to get us back in it and I thought that would give us energy and here we'd go, and it just didn't come back after that," Wolf said.

"It was a little more difficult out here today. It's the first time we've been on grass. That was part of it. We need to try to play the ball wide and things like that and we're not there yet.

"We're still hesitant to play the ball to space. There's all this space out [on the wings] and the ball's in the middle and we look out there but we go right back to where the bodies are. Part of it is just a lack of experience."

Indeed, Talia Avci was the only senior to start on Friday. The squad is heavy with 12 juniors, six of them returning starters.

In addition to Meagan McPherson, Brittney Noble scored both goals against Evanston while Meagan DeSalvo anchors a solid defense that also includes Colleen McPherson, freshman Brenda Maugeri and sophomore Carolanne Pilch.

Goalie Vanessa Niestrom, who made eight saves against Stagg, and midfielder Jessy Mutters, are two other freshmen who have made the starting lineup.

Considering the Hornets were unable to practice outside until Monday, it's understandable the group has needed time to jell, especially considering the Hornets open the season with 14 consecutive road games.

"I couldn't say what is going on [in] everybody's heads but I feel like in all three games when we go back out for the second half, not everybody is really into the game," Meagan McPherson said.

"And that's something that we can work on as a team and once we get that I think we'll be really strong.

"So far we've done really well with putting passes together. We have a really young team and I think we have more skill than I've seen in the past two years. We've had one or two players, but now we have a good majority of the players with some skill."

Some of those players come from families with soccer lineage. In addition to the McPhersons, Mutters and junior Jackie Belmonte – whose sister Jen is the assistant coach – have sisters who played collegiately.

Junior Melissa Van Hoegarden's older sister was a star athlete at South. Niestrom is teammates with sister Paige, a junior, and Noble has a younger sister on the JV team.

"We're really like a big family," Meagan McPherson said. "I didn't even realize it was my sister that had passed me that ball [on the goal]. That's awesome. We do a lot of things as a team. It isn't like separate groups at all. We're all one team together."