The Oxford girls soccer team had another productive season this year. The Lady Chargers finished with an overall record of 13-7 and a district record of 9-1, placing the team first in 7A Region 1. The team is also ranked No. 16 in the state of Mississippi.
“Coming out of last season, we knew we wanted more out of this year. We started working in the postseason last year by continuing to condition, hitting the weight room hard, and being intentional with practices on the field,” senior midfielder Taylor Grace Hamilton said. “We continued to do these things throughout the summer and preseason this year.”
The team beat the Germantown Mavericks 2-0 in the first round of playoffs and advanced to the next round but unfortunately, lost to the Clinton Arrows 4-0. The team was doing their best job preparing for the playoffs.
“One of our biggest strengths this year is the way we have only gotten better throughout the season,” senior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Urbanek said. “Early on we were not playing our best soccer and I think the team has done a great job of working through that and getting better each game.”
The team had improved vastly from last year with an overall record of 6-7 and a district record of 2-2 in 6A Region 1. They had worked on their problems from the year prior and had improved on many aspects of their game.
“I think we transitioned very well. We just worked on our struggles last year and tried not to let them be the same again,” junior forward Madison Strum said.
The team was pushing themselves to be at the top of their game and also developing the younger players to be at the best of their abilities.
“Junior and senior year it has been more about challenging myself and the younger girls to push themselves to become the best they can be,” senior midfielder Anna Claire Perkins said. “We have a lot of new young girls which caused our older players to step up. The older girls had to learn to play and grow with the younger girls to become a team.”
The team’s goal for this year was to win a state championship but ultimately fell short in the second round of the playoffs.
“Our goal every year is to win a district championship and the state championship. This year we won our district championship and we are the first seed heading into playoffs. Being district champs gives us motivation and excitement for the road ahead of us as we went for a state title,” Hamilton said.
