Talented Holderness Silences Wildcats

This was a very different Holderness JV Girls' team than the one that traveled to Meriden on Holderness Day in early October. Healthy and fully rostered, this Holderness side sported three or four top flight players - youngsters who were strong, technical and virtually impossible to defend. Add to this the fact that all of these athletes played either in the midfield or up top, and only the final score was in doubt. As I have mentioned before on these pages, soccer coaches spend the first 5-10 minutes of each game evaluating the 22 players on the field and figuring out who are the strongest 11. Today Holderness won that battle, perhaps 8-3. This is not the end of the story, of course. The story is not who is better, who has more experience; the story is about heart, and grit, and guts, and courage in the face of adversity. If teams were graded on THESE criteria, KUA won the game! To begin with, today Kimball Union employed the services of back-up goalkeeper Tina Nguyen and first time GK Alicia Malagon. Both rose to the challenge!! Malagon made several key saves in the 2nd half, and Nguyen once again demonstrated why she is one of the team's most valuable players. Other noteworthy performances were registered by sophomores Alieke Feid and Abby Dole. Both went in strong for challenges and never backed away from a rough and physical Holderness side. Competitive sports provides all kinds of opportunities for growth: today the JV girls' soccer team grew by leaps and bounds.