Last season, a 2-0 victory over Tabb – the Tigers’ only loss of the regular season – helped Jamestown’s girls soccer team capture its third Bay Rivers District title in four seasons under head coaches Kevin and Michelle Dawson.
The Eagles followed with another 2-0 victory over Tabb in the district tournament championship game, although it was the Tigers who later landed the eventual knockout punch, handing Jamestown a season-ending 2-0 defeat in the Region I semifinals to clinch a Group AA state-tournament berth.
Each of the team’s top two players from last season – Nicolette Young and Jaelyn Coates for Jamestown, and Bri Jasenak and Sydney Omweg for Tabb – are gone. Jamestown returns eight starters, while Tabb welcomes back eight seniors, seven of whom are starters. With that kind of retention, both the Dawsons and Tabb second-year coach Kendra Perry think their teams could each be even better this spring.
You won’t find better controllers of the game in the midfield than Jamestown’s Marissa Segala and Shelby Foret or Tabb’s Macy Peebles. The Eagles perhaps hold a slight advantage up front with proven juniors Paige Majdic and Aaliyah Lyttle leading the attack, although you can count on Tigers forward Aly Harmatz, who already has five goals in three games, to be one of the top goal scorers in the district come season’s end. Also, freshman forward Leah Tyson greatly improves Tabb’s scoring punch.
Both teams are equally as experienced and talented in the back. Segala, an all-state defender and Harvard commit, highlights a Jamestown defense that returns Jordan Chapman and Alex Dayton, as well as goalkeeper Hannah Sams.
Tabb’s back line of Hayley Mills and Marissa O’Brien will be no easier to get behind, while Tigers goalkeeper Kelsey Hecker could be the district’s best with Smithfield’s all-state keeper Tiffany Lennon choosing to run track.
While Tuesday’s opener between the two favorites will decide nothing, it certainly gives the winner an inside track to the district title and a No. 1 seed in the Region I tournament.
“It’s like having the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season,” said Perry, who guided Tabb to a state-tournament berth in her first season with the team last spring. “We’re a very well-rounded team. A little smaller than last year, but we have a lot more versatile players on our bench. … I think we’re going to be even better than last season.”
Added Kevin Dawson, whose Eagles have jumped out to a 4-0 record this season with impressive wins over AAA schools Great Bridge and First Colonial, “We have a talented group of players that have shown they want to work and get better.
“This could be the best team we’ve had (in five years coaching) at Jamestown.”
Two teams that have been annual contenders in the Bay Rivers District in recent years, Grafton and Warhill, could both struggle after losing a bulk of last season’s starters.
Grafton returns just five players who were on the varsity roster last year, while Warhill has just two seniors. First-year Clippers coach Johnny Yu says his team will lean on leadership of seniors Cassie Heinselman (GK) and Kaylee Pearce (CM). Second-year Warhill coach Todd Williams says his team will go as far as the goal scoring of senior Vicky Underwood and junior Lindsey Williams will take them.
The one team that could emerge and join Jamestown and Tabb as a contender is York.
The Falcons return seven senior starters from last year’s team that finished a respectable 5-3-1 in a district that was so competitive, its top three teams – Jamestown, Tabb and Grafton – had a total of one loss between them.
York’s returning talent is spread out all over the field, which gives head coach Tom Finley as much balance as he’s had in his six years with the program, and also makes the Falcons’ goal of reaching the district-tournament final and Region I tournament a realistic possibility.
Up front, seniors Jennifer Pandolf, who has 67 career goals entering this week, and Kamryn Comer give York a more than capable scoring duo. The Falcons defense features an all-senior back line in standouts Ashley Pandolf and Jenna Kinney, as well as Elaine Santiago and Laura Wiggins.
Talented newcomers Kisa Reck, a junior transfer from Germany, along with Michelle Shin and Katie Larsen round out a team that could emerge as a district dark horse.
The Falcons will find out right away exactly how competitive they can be, with their first three games of the Bay Rivers regular season coming against Warhill, Tabb and Jamestown.
“We are very fortunate to have eight seniors and a good mix of young players on our roster,” Finley said. “I think if we can integrate the new players we have, we could be very competitive. … We scheduled tough non-district games against quality opponents like Gloucester and Menchville to get us prepared for the team’s we’re going to have to beat if we want to accomplish our goals.”
