On this year’s team, chemistry is key. Cinnaminson Girl’s Soccer (CGS) has found that throughout the season they grew to work well with each other.

With a record of 12-6-2,  the team chemistry seems to be working. This year, as usual, the toughest match that the team will face is against rival Holy Cross. Each time CGS has gone against Holy Cross it has resulted in a close called game and sometimes, overtime.

The team finished third in the Liberty Division, just under Holy Cross in second and Moorestown in first.

As Coach Digney points out, “Our whole league is very tough; [We play] Holy Cross twice, Moorestown twice, and Delran twice; there’s no real rest for us.” No rest is right, as each day the team gets ready for a different opponent. After a win and a tie against Holy Cross, the girls’ team played Burlington Township on October 15 coming out of the game with a 5-1 win.

“Of course we’ve had some games where were able to score a lot of goals but very rarely do we get a good couple days off to relax.” Digney shared. With no time to relax, the team would face Holy Cross as their first game in the Coaches Cup on October 16. The CHS team fought as hard as Holy Cross causing the game to go into overtime, however after several minutes in, Holy Cross scored. The final score of the game was 2-1 in Cross’s favor.  It was the first time Cross had beaten CGS this year with the girls tying and defeating Cross 3-2 in the other two matches.

In response to the loss against Cross, senior captain Sophia Volpe viewed it in a positive light by saying, “when we lose we like to take it and learn from it. Every loss just makes us that much stronger as a team.”

Taking the same stance as Volpe, Digney also sees games like Holy Cross’s as a chance for improvement, “Every game we hope to improve every week we hope to improve. Where we sit right now I’m very happy, we still have to work out some kinks but by the time playoffs come around I think we’ll be ready.”

With playoffs being right around the corner the girls have been preparing hard at practice for their first playoff game on November 2, against Pemberton. Earlier in the season the Lady Pirates played Pemberton and game ended in a 4-0 Cinnaminson victory.

Hoping to keep this positive streak in the playoffs the girls have helped to keep a strong sense of positivity throughout the program. As Volpe expresses, her goal as captain is to, “make sure [I] always keep things positive and encourage all the girls and let them know when they do something good. I make sure to be the best role model I can be for the younger ones and I almost feel like an older sister to some of them.”

Along with Volpe, seniors Marissa DiLeo, Anna Saginario, and Amanda McHugh hold the captain position. Each of them bringing their own leadership and positivity to the team. Even those that are not captains still help to raise the team’s spirit.

Digney can tell that this year is different from others, as the chemistry and bond of the team has helped to bring the girls together, “Every season has its own unique way about it. We have a lot of positive energy with this team,” he finished.

The positivity of the team has helped to create the competitive edge of even though, “We don’t take it super seriously, we wanna win by all means but we do a lot of laughing a lot of smiling and I think that’s kind of our vibe this year.”

Although the attitude of the girls can be lax it does not take away from the skill the team has, “I think our strongest quality is that we don’t have one particular strong quality, we have many. We have girls with speed, girls with skill, and girls with good tactics which makes us a pretty strong team over all.” Senior Alex Kane shared.

With the playoffs here, it was time for more actions and less words for Cinnaminson.  The girls opened their first game of the playoffs on Monday, November 2 by thrashing Pemberton, 7-0.  DiLeo preserved the shutout for the girls, but junior Miranda Sackner did most of the damage, scoring a hat track in the win while Hailey Gutowski added two more goals for the Lady Pirates.

From there, the girls hosted Middle Township last Thursday, November 5 and got out to a strong 2-0 lead at half and held on for a solid 3-1 victory.  Sophomore Kelly Kane had two goals in the victory and classmate Jaime McHugh added another goal to complete the scoring for the ladies.  DiLeo was again very strong in goal, adding two saves for the Lady Pirates.

Those victories propelled the girls into the sectional semifinals against Point Pleasant Boro yesterday.  It was quite a lengthy trip for the girls and the physical game took its toll on the team.  Sackner was lost in the first half of the game and other Lady Pirates players had a rough afternoon dealing with the Panthers, but Cinnaminson fought adversity, tying the game early in the second half at 1-1.  However, it was not to be as the Panters scored early in overtime to take a 2-1 lead and hung on for the victory.

The loss ended the season for the ladies, but the team will return a wealth of talent and experience next season.