South girls soccer meeting expectations
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville South's Stephanie Lucey races past Williamsville East's Jessica Kowalski during the Lady Billies' 4-1 home loss last Thursday. South is 3-3 overall. Photo by Joe Eberle

Despite graduating its top goal scorer and goalie and changing divisions, Williamsville South varsity girls soccer, 3-3 as of this writing, is meeting expectations.

"I think it's realistic," said South coach Kevin McNamara. "What's nice is that we're getting better."

After dropping its first two games to Ellicottville, 1-0, and Hamburg, 4-2, South responded with wins over West Seneca East, 2-0, Maryvale, 5-0, and Sweet Home, 3-1. Their win streak came to an end against Williamsville East, 4-1, last Thursday.

East's Rachel Piemonte scored goals at the 10and 15-minute mark as East built a 3-1 first half lead.

"We thought we could mark her up a little bit and she got loose for two early goals," said McNamara. Emily Novak scored South's goal, her fourth of the season. Elizabeth Decker leads South with five goals.

Stephanie Lucey (on direct kick), Decker, and Marcus scored against Sweet Home. A possible fourth goal was turned away by goalie Angela Williamson.

"The first two goals were some of the nicest goals that I've seen in a few years," said McNamara. "They had to be to score against her."

McNamara lauded the overall play of senior defensive midfielder Jessica Sheehan, freshman Sarah Marcus and all underclassmen.

"They're getting valuable minutes," said McNamara. "We getting contributions from basically everyone."

McNamara also likes what he has seen out of converted goalie Alyssa Ashcroft. The junior played midfield on JV last year.

"It's almost funny how quickly she's improved," said McNamara. "She has some natural athletic ability so that's helped her."

South plays at Iroquois on Wednesday and host Frontier on Friday.

"I told the kids we're on a journey to see how good we'll be able to get," said McNamara. (So far), it's been enjoyable."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com