By Ben Kiritsy
Sports Reporters
The Newton South girls’ soccer team is set to face #11 Needham in the first round of the MIAA State tournament Sunday at two. The Lions are the sixth seed in the tournament coming in with a record of 15-1-3.
“We are expecting a tough match and we know Needham will do whatever they can to win,” sophomore Audrey Lavey said.
However, the Lions are known to get big wins against quality teams such as conference rivals Lincoln-Sudbury and Acton-Boxborough earlier in the season.
“If we go into this game with the attitude we had against LS or AB, some of our toughest competitors, and we play our game, then I think we will be fine,” Lavey said.
The Lions are rolling into the tournament as they made history this past year, winning the Dual County League for the first time in school history.
“I think we did very well this season. We have never won the DCl so that is huge for us. Everyone on our team had to work really hard to be DCL champs and to get to the playoffs, and we are all really proud of how far we have come,” Lavey said.
Despite their better seed, South is taking this game seriously as anything can happen in a state tournament game.
“We need to play our best game if we want to win this, sophomore Rosie Mcleod said.
Last year Needham was the MIAA State Champs. South also played them in the preseason and won the game 4-3 with a high powered offense.
“We were able to score a lot of goals, which was surprising because we hadn’t been playing together for that long. Plus we were also able to put a lot of pressure on their defense the whole game, Mcleod said.
“Needham’s strengths are that they are an aggressive team. They don’t give up, even if they are down by a lot, and they have a few really good players as well” said Rosie.
“We have the potential to go very far this year if we look past our seedings and just play soccer. If we let other teams get in our heads, then we won’t go very far,” Lavey said.
