The 2014 soccer girls won Districts for the first time in Marquette history last season and to make the win even sweeter it was against Lafayette.

“I was happy for the girls,” Coach Chris Kenny, said. “It was nice to have success against them since they’re always a talented team.”

The team lost five seniors after losing to St. Joseph’s Academy in Sectionals. Among those players is Sydney Vaughn, who now plays for Stony Brook in New York.

“They were all very experienced players and played together very well,” Jessica Dunlap, senior, said. “Their positions are hard to fill.”

“We’re definitely going to rely on the younger players to step up,” Madison Meador, junior, said.

With the loss of the 2014 seniors, Lauren Lottmann, senior, said that she thinks a lot of the returning varsity players will be important this year. This includes the four seniors on the 2015 roster; Cat Sturgill, Jessica Dunlap, Lauren Lottmann and Maddie Burroughs.

Dunlap said Lottmann and Meador will stand out as key players this season.

“Lottmann will be a key player because she’s a senior and has a lot of leadership qualities to help us win,” Dunlap sad. “Madison Meador brings a lot of physicality.”

The inconvenient weather has been affecting tryouts for the soccer team. They will continue to have conditioning in the morning and then go over to Lou Fusz in the afternoons if the weather permits.

“Pretty much all the way up until spring break we’ll be doing tryouts just because of the weather,” Meador said.

This raises concerns because the team’s first game is the first day back to school after Spring Break, Monday March 23, against Seckman.

“I’m anxious to see how good we can be,” Kenny said. “There’s a good group of returning players.”