ONE MORE FOR THE RESUME: LADY RAIDERS OPEN DEFENSE OF THEIR SOCCER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
The most decorated group of seniors in their school's history has one more chance to tack another Title on to their legacy this Spring.
And as a Defending State Champion, they will be a decided favorite to do so; more hunted than hunter.
Ross Green has this profile now of the QND Lady Raiders.
The 2012 season for QND soccer was designed to make up for unfinished business from the year before. Now, the Lady Raiders can start with a clean slate.
"I think going into this year, we start at game one. We're not looking at last year as anything that's going to make us better this year, we'll learn from that, but last year is done and over with,"
We all know how that 2012 redemption tour ended. This time around. QND has a target on the back as defending state champ. But its a badge the team plans to embrace.
"We just need to make sure we use it as motivation. Teams will come out and probably play their best game against us, and we just need to use it and be competitive. Its a motivation for us to come out strong,"
"We can't worry about that and we just have to come out and show who we are. We have to prove ourselves each game and come out and show ourselves,"
"I think over the years we've had that target on our back, its just a little bigger now that we've won 2 state championships. We know every game that we have to play our best because the people that we play want to beat us, and its nothing new for us. Its something we've done for years, and we'll just continue to play with the effort we need to,"
The number of returners may be a little less than years past, but those with experience don't anticipate a steep learning curve.
"We lost a lot of seniors, but I think we have a lot of good freshmen coming in, and we have juniors coming in who will fill some spots and I think that if they just stay strong we'll be good,"
"I think we'll be as strong as before, we might need to tweak some things - we might not be as aggressive or big as we were defensively. But I think we'll still be able to be just as good as we were last year,"
"You throw in the fact that they've all played in not only state soccer championships, but state basketball championships. Their experience is invaluable,"
It might sound tough going from a state title run in one sport and transitioning to the next, but once game one rolls around, the Lady Raiders feel like its all a matter of picking up where they left off.
"It takes a couple days to get the rust off, obviously, but after those few days are over you start getting your mindset back to soccer and not basketball or any other sport. You just have to remember those skills you learned last year and it all kind of comes back to you,"
"We've had some rest after basketball, but now its time to focus on soccer and set another goal to accomplish with this team,"
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