Wyoming Area prepared for the upcoming girls soccer season with 27 players, including 12 freshmen, at practice.
“It’s the largest number of kids we’ve hard in 10-plus years,” Lady Warriors coach Chad Kranson said. “It’s going to be exciting to put a JV team out there for kids to get some experience, which is great.”
The Lady Warriors do have some graduation losses to replace, specifically the program’s first all-state selection, Hannah Fairchild, who produced 33 goals and 14 assists last year.
Four seniors are back from a team that went 7-4-1 in Division 2 of the Wyoming Valley Conference and 14-6-1 overall. The Lady Warriors advanced to the District 2 Class 2A title game, finishing behind only Holy Redeemer in the district and both the Lady Royals and Lake-Lehman in the WVC.
Midfielders Emily Kostik and Ella Shepulski and defender Kendall Day are seniors who return to the starting lineup. The other senior, forward Summer Semanek, was also a part-time starter.
The Lady Warriors also bring back four juniors, including goalie Abby Francis.
“She’s a solid goalie,” Kranson said. “She put a lot of work in during the offseason.
“She’s definitely a worker and hopefully we’re going to see some good things for her this year leading us on the back end.”
That is where the strength of the Lady Warriors is likely to be found.
Sarah Mizenko started at center back and Sofia Menta returns as a defensive midfielder.
Amya Attmore is the other junior.
Sophomore Isabella Costa, who can also play in goal, is another part of that defense where she moved into the starting lineup last season.
Julianne Potter is a returning starter at forward while two other promising sophomores, Adie Kostik and Alana Zdanciewicz, are back after being lost early last season to injuries.
Alexis Skilonger, a sophomore who received limited playing time last season, is expected to be a bigger factor defensively.
Gianna Barletta and Sara Golden are the other sophomores.
The dozen freshmen will be trying to work into the lineup.
“It seems to be a good group of girls,” Kranson said. “They’re all hard workers. They’ve all played junior high soccer at Wyoming Area.
“The whole group is competitive kids who are going to fight for some playing time I the varsity games.”
Jailynn Park is another who can play goalie or defense. Ava Musinski, Francesca Pizano, Caitlyn Babuscak, Addison Heness, Katelyn Jacobs, Kaylee Janosov, Tessa Kukla, Guinivere McCurdy, Luciana Menta, Kaelyn Romanoski and Gianna Whittaker are the other freshmen.