In the first round of the girls varsity soccer state tournament, Westside took on Kearney High School. Westside was 12-5 entering the game and coming off of a district championship. Kearney was 15-2 and coming off of a district championship, as well.

In the game, Westside played Kearney to a draw through regulation and overtime, before Kearney beat Westside 4-2 in penalty kicks.

Though the girls lost in the game, the team performed well. In the first half, possession was split evenly. Both teams, Westside and Kearney, saw looks to the goal. Freshman Emily Torres made two diving saves during this half to keep the score at 0-0 while the defense of Westside also made a few last-defender stops to keep the score tied. On the offensive side, Westside attacked many times. The strikers were able to attack the ball and beat the defender. However, Westside’s offense looked anxious to score and hastily shot that ball a few times, resulting in easy saves for the Kearney goalie. Near the end of the first half, Kearney started to look fatigued, and Westside was able to get better shots off, one of which went off the left goal post.

The fatigue of Kearney was apparent in the second half as well. Westside dominated the second half with the ball on the attacking side for the majority of the half. Junior Mary Novoa and senior Gigi Grant controlled the middle and were able to keep the pressure on Kearney’s defense and produce more shots. When Kearney was able to clear the ball after a Westside attack, the Warriors showed urgency and pushed the ball back into their attacking third.

From this pressure, Westside was able to earn a few corners. In one corner off a rebound from a goalie save, senior Summer Khalil had a volley that hit the right goal post. Grant also saw open looks and hit the crossbar from 20 yards out, an unlucky break for the Warriors.

“[Shots hitting the crossbar] was so frustrating,” Novoa said. “Thinking that one would go in and put an end to the game. But it didn’t.”

The game went into overtime with the score still 0-0. In overtime, Westside still had dominance, but Kearney was able to attack back once or twice. The Westside defense did an outstanding job running down defenders and blocking off Kearney’s best angles, resulting in no good shots by Kearney in overtime. Westside had a few good looks at goal, but none were able to find the back of the net.

The game went into a shoot out, still 0-0.

In penalty kicks, Kearney found more success than Westside. For Westside, one kick hit the left goal post and went out, and the final one was saved by the goalie on the left side. Kearney was able to make its final penalty kick (they had to make one of the next two to win) and moved on in the next round of state to play Millard North.

Novoa, who has one more season at Westside before she goes on to play Division I soccer at Creighton, thinks Westside was the better team, but the game just didn’t go its way.

“We dominated the whole game and outnumbered their shots,” Novoa said. “We played a great game. Sometimes the better team doesn’t win.”

Despite the loss, Novoa said the people on the team made it a good year.

“[The team’s] chemistry was great,” Novoa said. “Everyone had fun. Couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls.”