As the girls soccer season inches toward next week’s slate of
opening games, Live Oak players grow more and more excited at the
thought of ending their proud program’s postseason drought
MORGAN HILL — She earned special recognition awards and first-team all-league honors in 2007 and 2008, but if there’s one thing Fabi Diaz notices most about her high school resume, it is her number of career playoff games.
It rhymes with hero.
As the girls soccer season inches toward next week’s slate of opening games, Live Oak’s luminous star forward and her teammates grow more and more excited at the thought of ending their proud program’s postseason drought. It has become quite an elusive goal for the Lady Acorns, now six seasons removed from winning a share of the Central Coast Section Division I championship.
“That group of girls, those four seniors last year were the first group of girls I’ve coached that never made it to a playoff,” Live Oak’s 10th-year coach Tony Vasquez said during Tuesday’s practice at Live Oak High.
Talent was not the problem. The Santa Teresa Division typically sends only its champion to CCS. Live Oak’s class of 2009 was 27-5-4 through its final two seasons, including a second-place finish in the unforgiving league a year ago.
Now the Acorns are playing in the tougher Mount Hamilton Division, which awards four postseason berths.
“Last year, the whole year, it’s like … a playoff game every game,” Vasquez said. “This year, we can afford to slip up. Our goal is not to win league; it’s to finish in the top four and make CCS.
“If we can win league, that’d be great. But making the playoffs is more important to us.”
In essence, Live Oak’s 2008-09 season was shortened by the team’s one league loss: a 3-2 heart-breaker to Willow Glen in which the visiting Rams scored the game-winning goal in stoppage time. The Acorns would have secured first place with a tie.
“I still remember it,” Diaz said. “I don’t know if the other girls do, but I definitely do. I still think about it.”
In 2008, Live Oak needed to, at least, tie Willow Glen in its regular-season finale to win the Santa Teresa. The Acorns lost 2-1, handing the division title to rival Sobrato.
Nine players are back from Live Oak’s 2008-09 squad, and they are hungry.
“That motivates us a lot,” junior midfielder Amanda Morgan, a three-year varsity player, said of missing CCS the past two years. “I feel like we have a lot to prove. We need to show we can play at this level.”
From their standout seniors to their up-and-coming underclassmen, the Acorns have the right mix to right the ship this winter. Though they lack the depth that helped them win 15 matches last year, they have a solid core of six players, Vasquez said. Those include Diaz, the team’s leading goal scorer the past two season, defensemen Kayla Cisneroz, Sam Riolo and Tiffany Greer, Morgan and Megan Rauschnot, who earned 2008 division Freshman of the Year honors after tallying a team-high 38 points.
Most of the starters also play for clubs.
“From our two goalies [Selena Braun and senior Gladis Covarrubias], to our center backs, to our center mids to our center forwards, we’re very strong,” Vasquez said. “We’re been doing a lot of reps in practice.”
Greer, a talented transfer, is a key addition to a stacked backline that also features freshman Sydney Barker.
“I feel like we have a lot more strength on defense this year,” Morgan said. “They can clear the ball. They can go wide with it. There’s a lot of pressure on them, but they’ve had success with it.”
Flanking senior forward Mika Matsumoto, Diaz and Rauschnot return up top, where they shared the spotlight last winter. Diaz and Rauschnot totaled 14 and 10 goals, respectively.
“At the beginning, they were learning to play with one another,” Vasquez said. “This year, they understand what’s at stake. Who cares who scores? The bottom line is, let’s get to the playoffs.”
Anything less would be a sheer disappointment to Diaz and company.
“It’s my senior year; I want to go to CCS,” she said. “It’s pushing us every day.”
