With an undefeated record, the varsity girls’ soccer team has had quite the season, winning the region title against Lanier High School on March 21, improving to a 14-0 record on the season. The Hornet girls are living up to their winning reputation, after making two straight title appearances. Last season, the team came just short in the state championship, losing to Marist 4-3. This year, the team has goals to redeem themselves, and take back their state title.
College Commits
A variety of athletes apart of this team have decided to commit themselves to continue playing after high school and compete at the collegiate level. Senior Camie Maynor is committed to UNC Chapel Hill, Senior Lilli Suarez to University of West Georgia, Senior Natalie Brooks to Clemson University, and Senior Rachel Phifer to Eastern Kentucky University.
Natalie Brooks
Brooks is a left wing forward committed to Clemson University. When asked about why she chose Clemson, Brooks said, “I chose Clemson because of the incredible team environment, coaching staff, wonderful campus, and I saw myself enjoying the program.”
Brooks is newer to the team, as she transferred just last year, yet she has been one of the major key players this season to the team’s success. Brooks said, “The biggest factor to the overall success of the team has been our competitive mindset and attitude to win.”
Even though Brooks has only been at Roswell for this school year, the left wing has made so many memories clearly on, but also off the field. Brooks said, “Some of my top memories would be team meals after practice the day before a game and team rounds with my friends before practices.”
Lilli Suarez
Suarez is a goalkeeper committed to the University of West Georgia (UWG). Recently, West Georgia just transitioned to be a Division I school. Suarez shared her excitement about being part of this growing program and said, “I have a really special opportunity to be a history maker for the school.” Suarez stated her decision was not too difficult as she developed great relationships with the current players and coaches over time so when the goalkeeper accepted her offer, it was clearly the right decision for her as this community was going to be her family.
Suarez has also played a tremendous role in the team’s success, especially on the defensive side. While the many attempted goals blocked have helped, Suarez expressed that the biggest key has been effort. Suarez said, “Anybody can put in effort regardless of talent, but when you have a team with talent that actually puts in the effort, that’s when the magic happens.”
Camie Maynor
Defender Maynor committed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) since her junior year of high school. Maynor shared that she chose UNC because it has always been my dream school and it gives me the opportunity to succeed in the future by playing professionally and furthering my career in exercise sport and science.
Maynor shares that one of the best moments with the Hornets was winning in the final four last season against Lassiter High School in penalty kicks. In addition to that amazing accomplishment, Maynor also shares another moment from this year’s season. Maynor said, “scoring the game winning goal this year against North Gwinnett with one second left in the game” was just another accomplishment she has attributed to this team.
Rachel Phifer:
Phifer will be playing center as well as outside forward at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU). She expressed that there were a few different aspects that made her choose EKU including the campus, community, and the coaching staff.
With the overall success of the team so far, this regular season, playoffs are soon for them. A lot of pressure exists during Spring considering the Hornets have made an appearance in the state championship game for the last two years in a row. While they have hopes and goals of making it back, they must work their way through some difficult matchups until then.
As the competition gets more difficult, the girls must put more focus into the game. When asked about the most important thing heading into the more competitive games Brooks said, “we need to focus on our game and not the other teams. If we play the way we know how to play the game becomes simple and puts us in a good place to win. We have pushed ourselves to train and play hard every day so staying locked in will help us achieve our goals.”
When asked about the team’s keys Phifer said, “the biggest factor is our team chemistry, and ability to understand the way everyone plays.”
Suarez said, “I have never been a part of such a special group such as this one at Roswell. This soccer family is so tight knit, and I am going to miss them tremendously.”
The junior varsity soccer program has also had a great season and has some players that will soon be key to varsity. Sophomore center back Neely Pohil is a current JV player and has been with the team for two years. She expresses how the JV team looks up to the varsity girls and admires them. Pohil said, “I look up to the team dynamic that varsity brings and the competition they get to experience.”
The Varsity girls have only four games left in their regular season before they take on playoffs. While they have had quite the competitive season thus far, it will only become more challenging. Suarez attributed it to being all about the mentality at this point stating that everybody is good in playoffs; its why they’re there.
Suarez said, “You have to set yourself apart from everyone else by having a better mentality.”
Many other key players on this team including Seniors Ryan Churchill and Sophie Brady and Juniors Jessika Ritter, Tessa Maurer, and Maya Misawa who continue to make a huge impact on this team each practice and every game.
Like Suarez said, this program at Roswell is “magical” and it shows on that field. April 15, the Hornets face Dunwoody High School for one of their two last regular season games and on April 17 they will celebrate their seniors when they play Wheeler High School for senior night.
Roswell Varsity Girls’ Soccer schedule: here.
