By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Westwood High School girls soccer went on a nine-game unbeaten streak (4-0-5) to revive their playoff hopes down the stretch of last season. Unfortunately, a bitter 1-0 loss to rival Medfield in the regular season finale kept the Wolverines (6-8-6) out of the Division II Tournament for the fourth straight year.
In 2019, Westwood will need to fill 13 roster spots from last season’s departed senior class. The Lady-Wolverines will be led by three senior captains in center mid/defender Kenzie Connaughton, defender Olivia Holbrook and center midfielder Tess Webb-Johnson, whose sister, Victoria, captained last year’s team.
“For this season, our main goal is definitely to make the tournament, because we haven’t been able to in so long and it has been a program dream for a long time now,” said Connaughton. “I think each and every player is capable of helping us achieve this goal. Last year we came so close to it. We were one point away, but lost against Medfield.”
In order to achieve these goals, Connaughton says she and her teammates must come together as one and start the season stronger than prior years.
“To get to this goal, we need to start out a lot stronger than we have in the past,” said Connaughton. “We tend to start out slow and lose games that, if we had maybe been a little more prepared for or entered with the proper mindset, then we could have won and made life easier on ourselves. Overall, if we start out strong and rack up points earlier in the season, that’ll give us a strong record right from the start, and that makes the end of the season more fun and easier on us. Not having to jam all of our wins into the last four or five games just to try and get into the tournament is definitely something we hope to avoid.”
