After making it to state for the first time in school girls’ soccer history, the Lady Cards soccer team is back. Soccer season has begun and they are excited for what this season brings and the promise of making state again.

“I believe we will get as far, if not farther, this year as we did last year,” senior Hanna Waters said.

Head soccer coach, Manny Avila (Coach A) is expecting lots from the girls this year. Most of the team from last year has returned and plan to make it back to state.

“It has become a bit of an expectation because of how we finished last year,” Coach A said.

In an effort to improve, the girls faced harder opponents for pre-district. They played against strong competition to prepare them for this season.

“We looked to play mostly 5A schools to challenge ourselves and see how we could handle adversity,” Coach A said. “Otherwise, we chose tournaments where we could play strong competition such as the Liberty Hill tournament where we played Liberty Hill (team we lost to at state), and Midlothian Heritage (team that won state two years ago).”

Pre-district was a chance for the girls to gain insight into some obstacles they may encounter.

“One of the struggles we will face this year is overcoming our nerves,” Waters said. “I think some of us are nervous that we won’t make it as far this year but once we overcome that we will play a lot more composed.”

Waters is also excited at the prospect of making it back to state this season.

“We have all the tools to make it back, we just have to keep our eyes on our goal and not back down to any of our opponents,” Waters said.