South Bend Saint Joseph girls soccer navigated adversity early. It's paying off now

MISHAWAKA — On Aug. 26, the South Bend Saint Joseph girls soccer team lost to Penn, 3-0, to drop its season record to 1-3.

Since then, the Huskies have played some of the best soccer in the state of Indiana.

The Huskies are 11-1-1 in its last 13 matches, including a decisive 8-0 victory over Jimtown Tuesday in a Class 2A sectional quarterfinal match. The surge has moved Saint Joseph all the way to No. 1 in the 2A coaches poll, a spot it occupied for the final three weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs.

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Saint Joseph coach Phil DePauw noted the additions of juniors Kate Ksiezopolski and Kaitlyn Swartzendruber to the lineup as keys to the turnaround. Ksiezopolski missed the first few weeks of games with a hand injury, while Swartzendruber had to wait for the IHSAA to approve her transfer from Goshen before becoming eligible to play in games.

“Those elements helped us coalesce,” DePauw said. “We were practicing with those players in the summer, and suddenly, they’re gone. We had to re-find our identity early, and once we got those players back, that certainly helped. … We took some knocks early, but adversity tends to pay off if you can find a way to push through that. This team has been really positive and done a great job with that.”

Jumping on its opponents early like the Huskies did Tuesday has been key. Jimtown entered the contest with a 13-2-1 record, a remarkable achievement given the program just restarted three years ago. Within seven minutes into the match, though, Saint Joseph had built a 3-0 lead on goals from Swartzendruber, senior Lauren Frick and freshman Maura Green.

Frick finished with two goals an assist for the evening to be the top point scorer for the Huskies.

“It was extremely important, especially because the opponents we hope to play Saturday (in the sectional final) were watching,” Frick said. “Not only were we setting the tone for this game, but we’re setting the tone for the next games we hope to be playing in.”

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Along with getting its full complement of players back, Frick feels her team learned some lessons in the Penn defeat on how to play high-quality teams.

“It definitely showed us what we needed to work on,” Frick said. “We realized we needed to work on forward plays and just running straight doesn’t do anything when you’re playing against a good, fast team. We realized, defensively, that we needed to work on defending free kicks.”

Staying focused on the task at hand

While there are semifinal matches still to be played in Sectional 18 Thursday, its hard not to think about what could come in Saturday’s final.

Host Mishawaka Marian (11-3-2), ranked No. 3 in the final 2A poll, plays in the first semifinal against John Glenn (9-6-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday. Saint Joseph follows against New Prairie (4-11). Should the Knights and Huskies take care of business, it’ll setup a top-three showdown in the sectional final Saturday afternoon.

Saint Joseph outlasted Marian, 0-0 (4-2 PKs) in the regular season matchup on Sept. 11.

“Right after (Tuesday’s game), we’re talking about New Prairie,” DePauw said. “You can’t live in the past or the future. One of the hardest things for kids – and anybody – is to not be thinking about things other than what’s right here in the moment. … It’s easy to start looking at a matchup with Marian, but we’ve both got things to accomplish on Thursday. Otherwise, that doesn’t happen.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Saint Joseph girls soccer navigated adversity early. It's paying off now