The girls’ red soccer team beat St. Mel’s 5-1 and made it into the Delphic League finals. They then beat Chaminade the very next day 6-1 to win the league championship, ending their season undefeated.
When asked about her thoughts about winning the playoffs, defense player Olive Monadjemi ’31 said, “Winning the playoffs felt really good and rewarding, and celebrating with the team made it even better.”
One of the main reasons for the team’s success seemed to be the sense of community that was developed during the season. The team felt like they were able to bond and work together even throughout the short period of time they were a team.
Roxy Rinderkatz ’31 said, “I think the main aspect of the game that we needed to pull through was working as a team together. We only started playing a couple weeks ago, but I think by the end of the season we were less of a lot of individual players and more like a well practiced team.”
During some of the difficult games that the team experienced, the importance of teamwork was even more noticeable.
Maya Lee ‘31 said, “[The team had] to be able to connect passes and work together to score.”
“In one of our away games the score was tied and we were on a very bumpy field. Our team worked together to get one goal that won us the game,” Mondajemi said.
As seventh graders, this was the first year that the girls played on the Harvard-Westlake soccer team.
“I found it very easy because all of my teammates and coaches were so supportive, and I didn’t feel out of place at all,” said Eda Aksoy ’31.
Rinderkatz said, “…because I knew pretty much everyone on the team, it wasn’t super scary or like a big leap, because although Harvard-Westlake is great, the team is also like most other soccer teams in terms of practice and playing.”
