It can be quite a task no matter how much talent a team has to finish a regular season unbeaten. And that is exactly what the Mission Bay girls soccer team has done this season.
With the CIF playoffs getting ready to start the first week of March, the Bucs head into the postseason on a high. Mission Bay went 17-0-3 during the regular season for head coach Jorge Palacios.
Heading into postseason play, Palacios believes his team’s hard work and positive attitude could take them far.
“The goal every year is to try to win every game,” Palacios commented. “We’ve had a bunch of tight wins, comeback wins that were exciting and fun.”
Like with any good team, you often do not have to look any further than senior leadership to see why it is doing well. For the Bucs, this season’s success starts with seniors Leilani Ferguson, midfielder, Juliette Tran, forward, and Jeryn Young, center back.
“They along with our entire senior class set a positive tone for the season,” Palacios said. “We also had great contributions from junior midfielder Gina Queck and sophomore forward Camrin Peaslee, who have phenomenally high work rates and lead by example.”
Speaking of some of those tough wins during the regular season, Mission Bay has had a few of them.
“Early in the season, we went to Mountain Empire and played on an extremely windy, chilly evening coming back from down 0-1 to win 3-2,” Palacios said. “More recently, we had a bunch of illness and injuries, and were down 0-1 at Christian and scored twice in the last three minutes to win. In both cases, they were total team victories as we had contributions from everyone on the roster.”
Even with that success in the regular season, the playoffs can be quite a challenge.
“The playoffs will be a challenge as every team in Division II is good,” Palacios said. “It’s a completely new season and we’re excited to see if we can string together a three-game winning streak.”