Girls soccer preview: Will Faith Lutheran repeat as 5A champs?
It’s never easy to be a repeat champion in any sport. That’s especially the case in Class 5A girls soccer, which has a strong group of contenders.
But if any team has a leg up heading into 2025, it’s defending state champion Faith Lutheran. The Crusaders return most of their team from last year, which could give them a slight edge over challengers like Bishop Gorman and Coronado.
The girls soccer season opens Thursday. Faith Lutheran, Gorman and Coronado will all kick things off at a tournament in Tahoe that begins Friday.
Crusaders coach Carl Cort said his team looks a little sharper technically than last year. He’s been impressed with the progress some of his returners have made as well as several freshmen.
“There’s a great chance for the girls to achieve something,” Cort said. “I think they have that in the back of their minds, so they’re really pushing for that. It’s going to be exciting. … As I said to the girls, they are the benchmark, they’re the target this year. They have to make sure that they’re ready for that and cherish that opportunity.”
Faith Lutheran won a wild 5A title game against Liberty in overtime last year. The Crusaders battled through injuries in the regular season but clicked at the right time.
The Crusaders bring back five first-team All-Southern Nevada selections in defender Kloe Abdalla, forwards Olivia Stark and Julia Anfinson and midfielders Anabelle Coe and Jailynn Henry. Cort said he stressed to the team to not let complacency set in.
“With winning it last year, nothing is owed to us,” Cort said. “We have to have a different mindset and incentive of going out there and it can’t be we’re going out there to win state. There’s got to be something more to it.”
Chasing the Crusaders
Liberty will have to reload after losing two of its top scorers. One plus for the Patriots is having UNLV commit Brooke Kramer back in goal.
“She’s just solid. She’s got ice in her veins,” Liberty coach Charity Schmitt said. “When we won that penalty shootout against Gorman (in the state semifinals), she made two penalty saves.”
The Patriots made the state title game for the first time last year. Schmitt said the returning group is confident it can contend again.
“Last year, we were depending on specific players having to step up,” Schmitt said. “But this year, without those specific players, we’re going to have to play more as a team and work a little bit harder. We have some young talent coming in.”
Coronado and Gorman will be two of Faith Lutheran’s biggest challengers. The Cougars have a returning group led by Cate Gusick, Allison Kleiner and Ryan Neel.
Gorman returns midfielders Gianna Tomasello and Emma Flannery. Gaels coach Doug Borgel said he likes the group of young players coming up that will help the team’s depth.
“We have the ability to go pretty deep in our bench,” Borgel said. “We’ll have so many good, talented kids to keep the ball to wear teams out. We don’t have a group of superstar forwards that are all going to score a bunch of goals. It’ll be pretty spread out.”
5A shrinks again
Borgel and Schmitt both said Shadow Ridge could be a solid team in 5A. Realignment shrunk 5A, which is a Southern-only classification, from 10 teams to eight this season.
Borgel said it’s been “disappointing” to lose teams and the “good rivalries” they’ve had with schools now in 4A. There are 30 4A Southern teams.
“It would be nice to find a different way to do it,” Borgel said. “I got a lot of kids in club that play on some of these other (4A) schools and the kids want to play in 5A, they want to play against the best, but somewhere along the line, we’re getting a little bit of miscommunication and we don’t see as many teams anymore.”
In 4A, Doral Academy, which reached the state semifinals, will be one of the top contenders. Canyon Springs, Green Valley and SLAM! Nevada will also be teams to watch. In 3A, Equipo Academy, Boulder City, Pahrump Valley and Virgin Valley will all be competitive.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
