KNOXVILLE – The Greeneville soccer team is spending the weekend in Knoxville working on getting better as it takes on tough competition in the Bearden Invitational Tournament.
On Saturday morning the Lady Devils took on Hardin Valley and played tough for most of the game, but two late goals gave the Lady Hawks a 2-0 win.
“I’m really pleased with how the girls have come along in the last week or so, and even from the beginning of last night’s game to the end of today’s game,” Greeneville coach Jerry Graham said. “We feel playing this tough competition in these tournaments really make us who we are. Today there were a couple of mental breakdowns that led to a couple goals. But we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. It’s still early in the season. We’re trying to speed up our pace of play and how we think on the field. We’re trying to see where girls fit on the field and how many minutes we can get from each girl.”
The Lady Greene Devils had to play most of the game on their heels with Hardin Valley’s offense applying pressure, but for 64 minutes Greeneville’s defense held strong and turned everything away.
The Lady Devils back line of Marley VanBuskirk, Gabi Stayton, Genna Renner and Elaina Philbeck with help of Kenadee Harper and Daniela Gallegos had to work hard all contest. In the tough spot they kept finding ways to stop Hardin Valley’s chances. Behind them keeper Lily Evatt made eight saves in the contest.
“Compared to early in yesterday’s game we are already seeing improvement on the back end,” Graham said. “We saw them handoff girls better than yesterday. We saw better pressure and cover. Our switching was a lot more fluid and that is really promising. We tried to stay in our shape, but ultimately when they started to send numbers we lost track of where people were.”
Hardin Valley’s attacking chances started in the first minutes when Sophia Roberts header missed its mark. Several more chances followed in the first half, but Greeneville was able to turn them away.
Greeneville’s first offensive opportunity of the day came in the 22nd minute when Stayton sent a free kick into the box. It bounced at the feet of the Lady Devils a few times, but Hardin Valley’s Anna Ogle was able to safely send it away before Greeneville could attempt a shot.
In the 35th minute Vivian Kammerdiener made Greeneville’s first run into the box, but once again the Lady Hawks cleared it before the Lady Devils could find a look at the frame.
Greeneville was not able to attempt a shot in the first half, but it was even on the scoreboard at 0-0.
In the early stage of the second half Greeneville was finally able to move the ball toward its goal. In the 42nd minute Stayton took a pass from Abby Adkins and found herself open from the top of the box, but the shot could not beat keeper Lauren Lambert.
Greeneville’s runs at the goal were short lived, and led by Morgan Holloway on the wing the Lady Hawks again started sending shots at the frame on the other end.
“When we pull numbers back to defend we are going to have a hard time attacking,” Graham said. “So we as coaches have to go back and figure out how to get numbers up. We can’t count on our three forwards to be able to have success against four defenders. We have to figure out how to get everybody into the attack.”
In the 64th minute Hardin Valley finally broke the deadlock. Holloway sent a corner kick into the box from the right side that found Ogle in the middle of the box. She found space to take a shot and slipped the ball inside the left post for a 1-0 lead.
In the 74th minute Hardin Valley struck again. This time Holloway sent in a shot from the edge of the box along the right side. Evatt turned away the attempt but Carys Price punched the rebound back into the net for a 2-0.
Greeneville started its time in the Bearden Invitational on Friday with a 3-0 loss to Webb. The Lady Devils will be back in action on Sunday against Station Camp in a rematch of last year’s Class AA State Championship game.
