There has never been a soccer team in school history to ever make it past the first round of state playoffs; the Lady Bison Soccer team made history and won their first round of the state playoffs! The team played Central and had an outstanding score of 7-0. The game was a thriller, with many students, teachers, friends, and family out to support the team.

Senior McKenna Lanager talks about how this win felt to experience for her team: “It feels really special. It is an amazing accomplishment and it’s very exciting that I got to make history with such a great team.” At the game, many students came out to support the team and create an atmosphere that was special to play in. Lanager says, “At the first-round game we were very excited, and the energy was high, especially since it was a home game. All of our supporters really made the atmosphere comforting and exciting,”

The team had to make some adjustments going into the game to be sure that they could pull through with the win. Lanager thinks “our teamwork was crucial in the win.” She states, “Without the whole team working together we wouldn’t have been successful. Everyone was very selfless throughout that game, and it helped us pass the ball around the other team.” The changes did not just start there; Lanager says that it started in practice. “To prepare for this game, the coaches really got serious with us. We broke every aspect of the game down and prepared for many different situations that we would face.”

This was not the first time that Lanager and the Lady Bison soccer team made it to the first round. In 2020, the team won their District Championship and advanced to the first round of states. However, they lost to opponent North Catholic in a heartbreaker. The team knew how it felt to lose this game and used that loss to prepare for this game in 2022. Lanager says, “My sophomore year we had to travel two and a half hours to the game that day. The bus ride definitely wasn’t in our favor. We were excited but we were very nervous. I think we were still a very young team and getting some more experience really helped us improve.”

Unfortunately, the soccer team lost in the next round of states which ended their season. It was far from what they wanted, but they were very pleased with how well they had done. Lanager offers advice to the underclassman for their next years of their high school career: “My advice would be to have fun and to embrace the losses. Winning is great.” The girls’ soccer team had a remarkable season that went down in school history.