Season ends for Mount Tabor girls soccer in 6-A regional final

An almost perfect season for the Mount Tabor girls soccer team came to a halt one win short of a shot at a state championship.

Charlotte Catholic beat Mount Tabor, 5-0, on Tuesday in the West Regional championship match of the 6-A state tournament.

Mount Tabor finished its season 19-1-2 and became the second girls soccer team in school history to advance to a regional championship.

"I couldn't have asked for a better all-round season," Coach Jay Callahan said. "I kept reiterating that to the girls after the game. We had team goals at the beginning of the season and I don't think anyone had regional finalists on that list. They continued to out-do expectations all year. They met the challenges every time we had one."

Mount Tabor and Charlotte Catholic, which was the No. 3 ranked girls soccer team in the country by MaxPreps, were scoreless for the first 25 minutes of the first half.

"Honestly, we were really happy with where we were up to that point," Callahan said. "We would have loved to take that score into halftime."

Unfortunately, that wasn't what happened.

Catholic scored two goals in the final five minutes of the first half, then tacked on three more in the second half to advance to the 6-A championship game.

"I really think things could have been different if it was 0-0 heading into halftime," Callahan said. "We were right there with them for the first 25 minutes. They just found a way to finish the first half strong. They did a great job with their distribution and movement of the ball."

The game was scheduled to be played at Charlotte Catholic, but drenching rains in the Charlotte area contributed to the game being moved to Ballantyne Ridge, which has an artificlal turf field.

The five goals scored by Charlotte Catholic were the most Mount Tabor allowed all season. No team had scored more than two goals against the Spartans, who also recorded nine shutouts.

Callahan said that he will take nothing but positives away from the season.

"This was a pretty young team overall," Callahan said. "We had a small group of seniors and juniors. Everyone just jelled together really well. They all got along, and that is huge. We went 10-0 in our conference, and I'm not sure if that has ever happened with the girls team here. We were also injury-free for pretty much the entire season. Some of that is luck, some of that is the work that we do during the offseason, but that was also a real key for us."

Callahan also pointed to the community service the Spartans' boys and girls soccer teams performed during the school year. Mount Tabor was one of eight schools in the state recognized by the NCHSAA with the Commissioner's Trophy and a $1,000 stipend for its community service. The boys and girls soccer teams delivered meals and offered fellowship to people in the community who experience transportation issues and loneliness.

"I'm very proud of that and the commitment shown by both teams," Callahan said. "Community service is a big deal to me and I think it's a great way for the kids to develop some strong bonds with each other while they are participating."

Looking ahead to next season, Callahan said that the Spartans will return a solid core from this year's team, albeit a young core.

"We lose a few key pieces," Callahan said. "Sophie (Wyshner, the leading scorer on the team with 25 goals and Offensive Player of the Year in the Piedmont-Triad 6A/5A) is going to graduate early after the fall semester and enroll at Wake Forest next January. Our goalie, Madalyn Wright, is also graduating and going to play at Lenoir-Rhyne. We'll have a pretty young team and we may take some bumps and bruises, but our ultimate goal again will be to win the conference and build up to that."

Kate Ledgerwood, who was second on the team with 13 goals and had 11 assists, will return, as will Elizabeth Scott, who scored 12 goals.

Hailey Zakrzewski, who led the team with 15 assists this season, will also be back to hold down the midfield.

"Hopefully we can continue with the momentum that we had this season," Callahan said. "Next year, we will have a team that we can continue to build for the next few years."

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