M-A lady kickers off to an impressive start

The past three years, however, have marked a massive rebuild, one that started in the 2019-20 season when head coach Jason Luce introduced four freshmen to the roster. It was the start of a youth movement culminating in this season’s unique starting lineup. It features 11 returning players, including two four-year starters in midfielder Susie Wagstaff and goalkeeper Gigi Edwards.

“That was a strange year,” Luce said of 2019-20, a season that finished as the COVID pandemic was beginning. “And then the young freshmen … were just stronger than the seniors I had. It was kind of setting up this year where we have really strong leadership.”

Now, the 2022-23 season M-A has been building toward the past several years is starting like a dream. The Bears opened the year with wins against South City, Sacred Heart Prep and Leland, with Edwards recording shutouts in all three. M-A has totaled 7 goals for and 0 against on the young season.

“We’re a veteran team … so the hope was we’d start well and trend upwards all year,” Luce said.

M-A’s non-league schedule only gets tougher though.

The Bears travel to Notre Dame-Belmont, the reigning West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division champions, for a Thursday showdown at 2:30 p.m. From there, they round out non-league play against Lincoln-San Jose, currently 4-0; Mountain View, the reigning CCS Open Division champions; then Palo Alto and Menlo School, two teams that got knocked out of the opening round of the CCS Division II tournament last season along with M-A.

“We had a good season last year,” Luce said of M-A’s fourth-place finish in PAL Bay Division play. “We just had a bit of a problem scoring and just a little problem gelling together.”

Luce is reluctant to celebrate this year’s 3-0 start because last season the team started with the exact same record, also with three straight shutouts. From there, the Bears wouldn’t string together two straight wins for the remainder of the year.

But something is different this year. M-A is playing with more swagger. That little problem the team had gelling together hasn’t been an issue. The Bears have produced seven goals on the season, with six different players scoring them. Only junior Georgia Auerbach has multiple goals with two. And most of the assists are coming from players who have yet to score a goal.

The chemistry seems legit, seeing as the core of the team has been playing year-round. Eight of the Bears’ 11 returning starters played together for the Alpine Strikers, a 19U team that took second place in the National Premier League, finishing behind a nationally ranked Mountain View squad.

And the Alpine Strikers were coached by none other than Luce, who has worked with younger teams as part of the club soccer organization for the past nine years. This past season, however, after former head coach Jeff Panos stepped away from the 19U squad, Luce took over and has navigated the team like a slingshot right into the current varsity season M-A has been building toward now for four years.

“It’s a good carryover to high school because you play at a really high level,” Luce said.

The club dynamic also shines a spotlight on Tuesday’s host game against Mountain View. Not only did the Spartans top the Bears 2-1 in non-league play last season — en route to an overall record of 22-1-1 — Mountain View is also coached by their old club coach, Panos.

“The girls are looking forward to that one,” Luce said.

Both Edwards and Wagstaff are returning first-team all-PAL Bay Division players, with Edwards having earned PAL Bay Division Goalkeeper of the Year honors as a junior. The Bears also have a quartet of current juniors who were recognized by the PAL last season, with Camille Melcher and Avery Galles named second-team all-Bay Division, along with Auerbach and Jordan Bradley earned honorable mentions.

“Really, for me as a coach, it’s really important they go out the way they want to go out,” Luce said. “They want to be champions.”