A lot of things have changed over the course of the past decade, but the Greeneville girls soccer making it to the state tournament is not one of them.
On Saturday afternoon at Fox Field the Lady Devils took down Seymour 2-1 in the Class AA State Sectionals to punch their ticket to the state tournament for the 10th consecutive season.
“To carry on that consistency of going to state tournament is great to see from these girls,” Greeneville coach Jerry Graham said. “Every year has its own identity. We lost six starters from last year’s team, but these girls came in and worked. The record may not show it because of the schedule we have played, but we have taken our lumps and learned from it. Even today they are asking what they can do better. Kudos to these girls constantly trying to improve to get us to this point.”
While Saturday’s win was big win, for Graham it was also an ugly win, and his squad will be focused on cleaning some things up before the state tournament starts on Wednesday in Chattanooga. In the first half he would have liked to see his offense capitalize more often, and in the second half would have liked to see tighter defense as the desperate Lady Eagles applied more pressure.
“I’m just happy to survive. Anytime you win a match to advance to the state tournament you’re happy, but we didn’t play our best today,” Graham said. “I would rather play poor and win than play well and lose though. There are a lot of things we need to clean up, and they were a good team that caused some problems for us. It’s about surviving and playing on.”
In the early going Greeneville controlled possession, but did not have much to show for it. In the first seven minutes the Lady Devils had three set pieces, but the only shot was a header by Matea Gray that sailed wide of the post.
Then when the shots started coming keeper Gracie Vorhees got her hands on everything. In the eighth minute Gray, Angelyn Diaz and Abby Adkins used great combination play to work into the box, but shots from both Vivian Kammerdiener and Gray were turned away.
In the 13th minute a long pass from the back line was headed forward by Kammerdiener and Diaz had a breakaway opportunity, but her one-on-one shot from right edge of the six-yard box was turned away.
Seymour’s first chance came in the 16t minute on a corner kick, but Greeneville keeper Lily Evat knocked away Brooks Hamilton’s shot.
Shots kept coming for Greeneville, and in the 28th minute Abby Adkins finally found the breakthrough opportunity for the Lady Devils. Adkins played strong with the ball at her feet and maneuvered toward the posts, but as she set to shoot from the middle of the 18 yard box two Lady Eagle defenders collapsed on her and took her to the ground. The shot went forward but Vorhies stepped in front of it.
Kammerdiner was quick to the spill and sent it back at the net from five yards, but Vorhies was able to dive in front of it. Adkins regained her footing and with Vorhies laying prone she sent a soft touch back into an open goal for a 1-0 advantage.
“I don’t really know what happened, it felt like the ball was going everywhere,” Adkins said. “I fell, and then Viv hit it. Then I got up and the ball was right there, so I kicked it. Thankfully it went in. It was like a breath of relief to get one to go in.”
Seymour had three scoring opportunities over the final 10 minutes of the first half but Evatt saved two of them, including one-on-one faceoff with Caitlyn Ogle.
In the 37th minute Adkins gave Greeneville a little breathing room. Kammerdiener was taken down in the box resulting in a penalty kick, and Adkins burned the turf with blast to the lower left corner of the frame that put the Lady Devils in front 2-0 just before halftime.
“It was so exciting to see that shot got through and I was so proud of her,” Greeneville senior Gabi Stayton said. “I think that helped us all calm down going into halftime. I think at that point we knew we had it and we just needed to keep our heads in the game.”
In the second half the Lady Eagles turned up the pressure trying to keep their season going, and in the 51st minute that was rewarded with a goal. Hamilton took a free kick from 20 yards and wide of the box on the left side. She lofted a shot over the defense and dropped it into the upper 90 at the far post to close the gap to 2-1.
The Lady Devils defense played on their heels for much of the remainder of the game, but Greeneville’s back line of Emma Kate Weems, Elaina Philbeck, Daniela Gallegos and Marley VanBuskirk held strong and kept the tying goal away. They got plenty of help from midfielders and senior captains Gabi Stayton and Emma Sauceman.
“I think once that goal went in a lot of our girls realized they had to step up because this is an elimination game,” Graham said. “They played with urgency. We talked about it at halftime and we knew they would push numbers up. Our girls responded pretty well. We pushed Viv back to help with some of those numbers and I think that helped a little bit. In that last 20 minutes we bent, but we didn’t break.”
On the offense Gray, Kammerdiener and Mackenzie Castro were able to make some dangerous runs into the box, but they could not put together anything that Vorrhies could not handle.
The Class AA State Tournament will begin on Wednesday at Chattanooga Christian School.
