By DAVID COOK
When it comes to girls’ soccer in the Lansing area, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
While the Okemos Chieftains lost a number of key players off last year’s state championship team to graduation, the squad still returned several talented players and had some promising young players ready to step in this season.
That combination proved to be another winning one for Okemos. Not only did the Okemos girls win the conference with a perfect record, but they also captured the Capital Area Conference Championship Cup with a 2-1 victory over Holt.
“We lost six seniors off last year’s team, and while that is not a huge number, the kids were a big part of the program the last four years,” coach Brian Guggemos said. “Obviously, we still had some good players returning this year. We have three players who have committed to Division 1 colleges including two seniors and a junior. We still have good players and returned some key components from last year’s team.”
A total of eight seniors returned to this year’s team, and a lot of those players filled key roles on last year’s squad. “A lot of our seniors were a big part of the 2012 team,” Guggemos said, “so it was not surprising that we were still successful this year.”
Senior Kourtney Scott, who has committed to Northwestern University, has scored 20 goals this season.
Senior Danielle Glogovsky has been a key player for the Chieftains for the last couple years.
Junior Kristelle Yewah is a talented player back from last season. Yewah, who has already committed to Michigan State University, has scored over 20 goals this season for the Chieftains. Along with Scott, she gives the team a potent one-two scoring punch on offense.
“Our attack can be pretty good at times,” Guggemos said. “We have a couple of 20-goal scorers.”
The Chieftains have also received double-digit goals from Erin Doster.
While Okemos has had a potent offense this season, the defense has also been a strong point. “We haven’t given up many goals this season,” Guggemos said. “We’ve only given up nine or ten all year. We’ve done a good job of keeping the ball out of the net. We lost our goalkeeper from last year, but we’ve had a couple of girls step up. We have a freshman and a sophomore who have stepped up and done well.”
Sophomore Ashley Hughes and freshman Caroline Serkaian have shared time in net. In front of the keepers, defenders Rachel Rosenthal, Vanessa Nigg, and Caitlin Climes have anchored the defense.