While the Liberty Charter High School girls and boys basketball teams are making headlines with their amazing seasons, the Alpine school’s girls soccer team also has a story to tell.
The Lady Lions, despite losses to graduation, are contending for a league championship as well as a berth in the upcoming San Diego Section Division V-AA playoffs.
Liberty Charter defeated Mountain Empire, 5-1, in its Frontier-Summit League opener on Jan. 6 before slipping past High Tech high Chula Vista, 1-0, on Jan. 13 and High Tech Mesa, 2-1, on Jan. 22 to kick off league play with a 3-0 mark.
A 7-0 loss to first place O’Farrell Charter tempered that strong start but the Lady Lions remain near the top of the San Diego Section’s Division V-AA power rankings.
The team’s 7-7-3 record places it third in the division power rankings behind Calvin Christian (11-3-0) and River Valley (10-1-2).
Freshman Abigail Funk led the team with five goals through five games while sophomore Madalin Hastings had scored four times and freshman Stella Klingshirn had three goals.
Liberty Charter received goals from five players in the win over Mountain Empire — one each from Funk, Hastings, senior Marion Maliepaard and sophomores Abigail Scott and Myra Sanders.
“The team is young this year as we had seven seniors leave last year, but they are showing a lot of promise,” Liberty Charter head coach Jori Hays said. “They have been between second and third in CIF.
“All the seniors have taken the lead on and off the field. They all possess positive attitudes, excellent team spirit and leadership skills.
“We have four starting freshmen who have made a huge impact on the team.”
Seniors include Emma Figueroa, Cadie Belasco, Amelia Primmer and Malliepaard. Freshmen include Funk, Summer Svendsen, Klingshirn and Camila Munoz.
Regular season play ends Feb. 12. The playoffs kick off Feb. 17-18.
The playoff format will include seven divisions.
The Open Division will feature eight teams, Division I will include 12 teams, Division II through Division IV will include 16 teams each and Division V and Division V-AA will both feature 12 teams.
The Open Division remains double-elimination with two game aggregate-goal series in the quarterfinal round to determine which team advances to the semifinals. Overtime and kicks-from-the mark will only apply to determine a winner in the second game.
The other divisions are single elimination in each round.
Championship game venues (boys and girls) include Escondido High School (Open Division on Feb. 28 and Division III on Feb. 27), Monte Vista High School (Division I on Feb. 28 and Division IV on Feb. 27), Montgomery High School (Division II on Feb. 28 and Division V-AA on Feb. 26) and Grossmont High School (Division V on Feb. 26).