WEST ALEXANDRIA — The most successful season in the 22-year history of the Twin Valley South girls soccer program came to an end with a 3-1 loss to No. 1 seed Anna in the Division III sectional final on Thursday, Oct. 21.
South finished the season with a 14-2-2 record. The 14 wins is the most in a single season for the Panthers.
The No. 11 seeded Panthers opened tournament play with a 5-1 over Dixie on Monday, Oct. 18.
South, which had beaten the Greyhounds twice during the regular season, 6-1 on Sept. 16 and 7-1 on Oct. 12, held a 2-1 lead at halftime before dominating play in the second half and scoring three times.
The Panthers had three shots on goal in the first five minutes of the second half as they kept pressure on Dixie’s keeper for much of the final 40 minutes.
The Greyhounds had a few scoring opportunities but failed to find the back of the net.
Senior Madison Hundley scored 33:02 left to make it a 3-1 game, and senior Pearle Rollyson scored her second goal of the game shortly after to make it a 4-1 contest with 27:17 left.
Senior Makiah Newport, who also had three assists, finished off the scoring with her second goal of the contest with 6:59 remaining for the final margin.
Junior Danielle Denlinger and sophomore Ava Clark each had an assist.
“It was a sluggish start. We had three days off, we had a big emotional win last week against [Preble] Shawnee, you know, so that kind of happens,” South coach Chad Newport said.
In the loss to Anna, Newport, South’s all-time leading goal scorer, tallied her final goal of her career with an assist from Hundley.
Despite the loss, the coach was proud of what his team accomplished.
“That’s all the hard work they’ve put into it. Kudos to them, they’re the ones that did it, not me,” he said of the 14 wins and the program’s first-ever league title. “It’s been a great season. I’m proud of them. They’re doing stuff that Twin Valley South girls soccer, you never would have thought would do this 10 years ago. So kudos to the kids.”
