Pasta parties, late nights, and spirit days are cornerstones of a typical season for the Southern Lehigh girls soccer team. But this year has brought about multiple changes on the field. 

“Last year, we played a four-four-two formation,” Head Coach Andrew Filler said. 

“Based on some early results in the year, and talking to some of the captains and upperclassmen, we decided to play a three-five-two formation, and that’s been working for us for the last eight or nine games.” 

Although a formation change is no minor adjustment, the team has taken it in stride, gaining a 12-3-2 record and a spot in the Colonial League playoffs. Many of the players attribute this quick adjustment to the overall team atmosphere. 

“As a team, we’re really unified, we have great team chemistry, we have a lot of team bonding, and a lot of players don’t feel left out,” senior captain Annefloor Fooij said. “Team chemistry in soccer is so important, and I feel like it’s really high this year. That’s what has led to a lot of our success and our goals this year.”

With the bolstered spirit, the team has accomplished many amazing feats, such as coming back from four goals behind to defeat Saucon Valley 5-4. 

“[Senior] Kendall [Zuk] is our vocal leader and she encouraged us all,” freshman Haley Fluck said. “She believed in us even when we were down goals, and I think she was the one that kept us going and kept us reaching for another goal.” 

Off the field, the girls continue to emphasize the positive team atmosphere. Team bonding activities, which encourage unity among the team, make this possible.

“We did a lot of team sleepovers,” Fooij said. “We did a lot of team activities throughout the summer season and throughout preseason.”

The team also fosters their positive environment through spirit days. One of the most popular days is Newman Day, where the team dresses like one of the assistant coaches.

They are looking to continue building this environment into the postseason. With their hard work on and off the field, the girls hope to improve upon their season’s successes in league and district playoffs. 

“For the rest of the season, our goals are really to come out and play hard with intensity for the rest of the postseason,” junior Meghan Conron said. “Right now we’ve had a difficult time scoring goals, so I think as a team if we can collectively score more goals and get more numbers on the charts that would be an improvement for us.”

As the 2022 season draws to a close, the girls look back on their favorite moments. Collectively, one particular team favorite was the Saucon game.

“It really showed how we could work together as a team since we got back from four to nothing,” Fluck said. “When we won that game, I had a lot of hope for our team moving forward and I just looked up from that point.”