Coming off a strong district championship season the varsity girl’s soccer team is looking to repeat its success in the upcoming spring season. But, before the team can do that, they’ll need to fill some of the roles left by the seven seniors they lost last year.

“We did lose a lot of strong seniors in key spots, and it is hard to tell how we are going to fill those spots this year,” junior Kendra Wood said.

One of the graduated seniors, goalkeeper Adrian Pogue, was selected to the Missouri All-State team last year.

“Since we lost an All-State keeper, we’ll have to be strong in defense,” senior Ellen Spooner said.

In the hopes of repeating the success they’ve had in the past, the soccer team sets their goals high for their upcoming season.

“We want to beat Camdenton, win districts, and come together as a team unit,” junior Taylor Banholzer said, “I think that Ellen Spooner will fill the role of team leader. She really stepped up last season and I think she will do great as a leader her senior year.”

In addition to the team’s goals, the players have goals they’ve set for themselves for their upcoming season.

“My main goal is to not get injured this year. It happened to me last year and it hurt me all season. I want to help be a big change in the team, that little spark that helps the team keep going,” Wood said.

In spite of losing a strong senior class, the lady bulldogs have many returning quality players.

“I would like to have honors again. Last year I was Defensive Player of the District, and I would like to do better than that. I like to push myself to be better every year,” Banholzer said.

With so many players returning for the upcoming season, the players have some games they look forward to this year.

“There are many teams that we look forward to playing. As Rolla, we usually create lots of rivalries with other teams. But I would say the teams we look forward to playing the most are Camdenton, Jefferson City, Kickapoo, and VIZ,” Wood said.

The football team isn’t the only team to benefit from the Turf-by-’12 initiative–a turf field means an alternative from the grass field the soccer team already uses.

“Turf would be nice because it gives us an advantage; we’d always have a solid field to train on. However, I personally prefer grass to turf,” Spooner said.