Westfield girls soccer hoping for dominant season
The Westfield High School girls soccer team has boasted winning records for over 15 years straight and has certainly been among the elite squads in the Union County Conference during Alex Schmidt’s seven seasons as head coach. But injuries have plagued the Blue Devils from turning regular-season success into postseason championships.
This year, the hope is that could change.
Westfield returns all of its starters from last season, losing none to graduation, and all 11 are healthy.
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“This year we have 16 girls returning from last season,” said Schmidt, a defender who captained the 1995 Westfield boys team to its last state championship. “That’s our entire starting lineup returning, and we’re excited for that. We don’t have to start from the beginning with a whole new team.”
“We have a lot of experience,” Schmidt continued. “Five of the girls are four-year starters, and four girls are three-year starters. These girls have a lot of big-game experience and a lot of big-game loss experience. We have had great senior leaders off the field and great senior leaders on the field, but not a combination of both. This year we do. We have a really mature team, we have a lot of talent, we have soccer players with experience, and it’s going to make us dangerous.”
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Among the returners is midfielder Taylor Morgan, a four-year starter who will continue her soccer career at the University of Alabama next fall. Morgan is no stranger to big games, bitter losses — or injuries.
As a sophomore Morgan found herself with a high ankle sprain right before the biggest game of Westfield’s season. It was the NJSIAA North 2 Group IV semifinal against none other than Scotch Plains-Fanwood — a Union County Conference juggernaut and Westfield’s biggest rival.
“She was our engine,” Schmidt said. “Not to have her at 100 percent was tough.”
Morgan pushed herself to play through the injury because it was such a monumental game, and Westfield stayed with SPF through the entire contest before ultimately losing on a double-overtime golden goal.
“Taking shots was definitely the hardest thing,” Morgan said about playing on an injured ankle. “Trying to control the ball and get a shot on frame was hard, and so was making a quick move and going in hard to a tackle. It’s such a big game that you don’t want to sit out, but you in your mind know you’re going into it not 100 percent.”
She wasn’t the only Blue Devil frustrated by injury in the postseason over the years. In 2013 Karli Sottung, an All-American midfielder who now plays for the U.S. Naval Academy, suffered a high ankle sprain of her own right before the state tournament, in which Westfield was seeded second, forcing her to sit out. Just like that, Westfield was exited in the first round.
In the same year, defender Mary Randazzo was sidelined at the halfway point in the season due to a concussion. The Blue Devils were so depleted due to injury in 2013 that Schmidt had to call up juniors from the JV team to help fill the gaps.
This season, with a full roster of returners who are injury-free, Westfield’s biggest goal is to win the county tournament, which would end a three-year Scotch Plains-Fanwood reign. Besides that, the Blue Devils want to make a statement in the state tournament earning a spot in the sectional final.
“We’re trying to get the county crown away from Scotch Plains,” Schmidt said. “We look to change that this year, not only in the county but also in the conference. We don’t want to be complacent and have it be that we’re fine with being second to Scotch Plains. First things first, we want to put ourselves back into the talk of an upper-echelon team.”
With so many experienced girls returning, starting spots for any of them are not guaranteed. Schmidt has the luxury of picking from the best of the best among a large group, and his captains are on board with being choosy.
“It’s going to be hard to get playing time, and I think the girls understand that because it’s a senior-led team and the juniors are following and at Westfield, soccer is very competitive," Morgan said. "We've talked to our coach as captains, and we as captains and seniors don’t want to leave the season wishing we gave more. Fitness will be done every week. The practice level will be extremely high and competitive. It's going to be tough to get playing spots — we don’t want anyone thinking that they just deserve to be on the field.
"We want a trophy. It starts with county finals, and once we get there the sky is the limit with this team."
COURIER NEWS AREA PRESEASON TOP 10
1. Hunterdon Central (18-5-1)
2. Ridge (23-0-1)
3. Westfield (11-5-2)
4. Scotch Plains-Fanwood (20-2-1)
5. Bridgewater-Raritan (17-8)
6. Somerville (16-3-1)
7. Pingry (10-11)
8. Hillsborough (9-9-1)
9. Watchung Hills (13-6-3)
10. North Hunterdon (12-7-2)