After a season of accomplishments, which included a conference title and appearance in the district championship match, the Tumwater High School girls soccer team saw its stellar season come to an end in the first round of the Class 2A state tournament, losing to visiting Archbishop Murphy, 2-1 (5-3 shootout), at Tumwater District Stadium.
“It’s a tough way to end,” Tumwater coach Brett Bartlett said. “Shootouts are just…”
Bartlett never finished his sentence, drifting off in thought as the disappointment of the loss sunk in.
“I felt we had a better keeper and better opportunities,” Bartlett said. “(Archbishop Murphy) just hit them right.”
It marked the Thunderbirds’ first trip to the state tournament since 2012 – where they were also eliminated in the first round by the Wildcats.
The T-Birds, who will graduate nine seniors from this year’s squad, including Sierra Snyder, Hailey Sanne, Elizabeth Klaus, Stephanie Moore, Kayse Smack, Mikayla Kee, Jesy Chartrey, Bella Foos and Angel Swilley, finished the season 17-3 and captured the 2A Evergreen Conference championship with a spotless 10-0 mark.
“(The seniors) set a new standard for what we want to accomplish on a regular basis,” Bartlett said. “They’re disappointed in themselves. I can guarantee that because they didn’t want to see it end like this. They didn’t want it to end at all. They really felt they had the ability to go further and it’s just one of those funky things. You think you do the right things and create chances and it just didn’t go in today.”
Foos put the T-Birds ahead at the intermission against Archbishop Murphy with her unassisted goal in the 20th minute. Tumwater completely controlled the early portion of the second half, but the Wildcats (14-7-1) found the equalizer midway through the second half and pushed the contest into sudden death overtime.
“We had to finish. We had chances. We hit the cross bar a couple times. We had rebounds right in front of the goal and just couldn’t seem to put it away,” Bartlett said. “We had chances to win it in regulation and the ball just didn’t go in for us.”
Following two scoreless 5-minute overtime sessions, the match went to penalty kicks as a pair of freshmen goalkeeper – Tumwater’s Cassie Mullin and Archbishop Murphy’s Lily Zwiefel – battled it out.
The T-Birds received PK goals from Sanne, Kee and Moore, but Archbishop Murphy was able to successfully connected on all five of their attempts, sending the Wildcats into the state quarterfinals for the 14th time over the last 16 seasons, but the first since 2013.
Despite the season-ending defeat, Bartlett was quick to praise the play of his team this year, which included a 15-match winning streak.
After dropping their season opener to undefeated Camas, a 4A state participant this year, the T-Birds went on a roll, beginning with a 1-0 victory over Olympic on September 17. It marked the Trojans’ sole regular season loss and kick started a wave of victories for Tumwater.
The T-Birds closed out the regular season by outscoring their opponents, 56-4, over the final 11 matches, posting eight shutouts over that span.
Tumwater defeated R.A. Long, 2-1, in the opening round of the district tournament before besting Ridgefield, 3-2, in the semifinals where they received goals from sophomore Rilee Stillings, Foos and Kee.
The team’s long winning streak was snapped in a 2-1 loss to Columbia River in the 2A District 4 title match.
Despite the loss of the strong senior class, Bartlett expects minimal drop off next season as his team will welcome back three juniors, eight sophomores, including Devon Hess and Stillings and a pair of freshman.
“That’s the hope,” Bartlett said about his team returning to the state tournament next year. “Our JV team had a great year. We have some really good players returning. Probably about half of our core kids with the varsity group were underclassmen so they will be back.”
