This season, the MHS girls soccer team ends their year qualifying for the state tournament with a record of 19-1-2 with 19 wins, one game that was tied and two games that were lost making not only this year’s score one of the best in the MHS girls soccer team record but also their third time since 2008.
Senior and defense player Agatha Silva describes how this season has been one of the best seasons, beating records as well as achieving multiple goals. She expresses her opinion of this season stating that it was “very good” and how many of the girls on the team have been playing together for a couple of years, not only did they make it to states this year but also got the best record in MHS girls history. She also says that “[they] got to reconnect in ways that [they] [have not] been for a while” and that lead to the team determination and motivation being “stronger.”
Junior and next years captain, Sophia Ruperti, expresses similar impressions on this season presenting that “[she] think[s] this season was amazing because [they] made history for Malden High School.” With that being said she also mentions the similarities and differences of this year compared to the previous year where “[they] had the same exact players and the lineups [were] the same, mostly everything is the same except the only different thing is that [they] made history and [they] went further than last year”.
Silva mentions the improvements that the team has had throughout this season, where the team has enhanced their skills with handling the ball but the team still needs to advance “with using [their] wings, which can create more opportunities to score.” Silva also established the need for the team to be more vocal and “get better with [their] communication because [they] [do not] talk as much as [they] should.”
Ruperti believes that the team is always up for more improvement, but she noticed the team has been getting much better with the amount of effort that they put into their practices specifying that “everytime [they] go to practice, [they] know [it is] time to work and get better so [she] think[s] it really showed from last year how much [they] improved.” She believes that their team chemistry is an example of what the team has worked on. Ruperti explains how although their team chemistry has always been stable, this season they have to know each other better and now they “know how [they] individually play as well as other team members.”
Junior and Defense player Emraude Bonnet, asserts that “one strength was the constant pushing and challenges that the team put for themselves” in order to do their best every game.
Players that stood out within this season according to Silva were Senior Susan de Leon, who was a helpful teammate and a “non-selfish player, always willing to let another teammate score even when she wanted to.”
Ruperti mentions that the defense team stood out to her this year as well as explaining how they worked really hard and gave their whole heart out for the team and did everything they could, as she says “so the defenders are the ones that shined this season” as well as Beatriz De Oliveira Segato, “who had an outstanding season with a lot of goals and numerous assists.”
Captain Angela Trejada-Soliz also gives a shout out to her fellow captain, Jill Tramondozzi who has “outplayed herself each and every game, she is outstanding and really holds [their] defense down.”
A game that stood out to both Silva and Ruperti was the pinkout game dedicated to the coach’s sister who is battling breast cancer, the game was against saugus, and both girls mentioned the nervousness of the team being so that they lost the first game against saugus but because the team knew that it was dedicated to the Coach’s sister as well as other people battling cancer they had even more motivation to win as she says, “since not only [was] it for battling against breast cancer but the team was also playing for someone else.”
Goals that the team has for next year is to make it to states again as making new records in the history of MHS.
The girls soccer team went to their second round in states, where they got a bypass on the first week of states then held their second states game against Lexington which came out to be the score of 4-0 with Lexington winning.
The team trained for states according to Ruperti by “practicing everyday and [they] just worked on what [they] needed to work on, but [she] think[s] [they] have a lot of talent in [their] team. [They] just incorporated everything and showcased it throughout the season and [their] goals were to make make it into states and pass the round.”
For incoming students next year, Silva recommends to not “give up, stick through the season” as well as just trying.
