West Orange High School Soccer Girls Spend Busy Summer

The West Orange High School girls soccer team is primed for another successful season. A busy off-season is one of the reasons.

The varsity team finished 16-4-1 last season, making it to the North 1 Group IV quarterfinals where they lost to Livingston. Many of the returning players got together on Mondays and Wednesdays and then added Thursdays in August for street soccer sessions that included 3 against 3 and 5 against 5. The girls had a great time, naming their teams after countries represented during the summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

"The uninterrupted free play provided the players constant opportunities to make decisions and solve soccer problems by working through tight areas, playing out of pressure, combination play transition and individual and group defending and finishing," said coach Lou Mignone. "These small-sided games which serve as the developmental model for youth players throughout the rest of the world offer constant touches on the ball thus providing far more technical footwork repetition  than a full sided match."

The team also once again played in the annual Montclair State University High School Tournament on Thursdays in June and July. The Mountaineers finished third, but were unbeaten throughout the season.

West Orange beat Bloomfield, Passaic Valley and Nutley and had ties with Kearny and Mount St. Dominic.

Players who participated where Illissa Blackshear, Allison Mejia, Casey Kriak, Raven Edwards, Ariel Almodovar along with Fethnat NiShuileabhain, Emily Millan, Barbara Bolanos, Emily Brown and Maya Younker.