Girls soccer: WW South ousts Rolling Meadows

A slow start can spell doom for a soccer team, and the worst time it can happen is the postseason.

Wheaton Warrenville South fought through its sluggish start during Wednesday's Class 3A Geneva regional semifinal against Rolling Meadows and earned a 3-0 victory.

The Tigers (14-6-3) advance to Friday's championship game, where they will take on the host Vikings.

"A lack of concentration and focus can really cost you and those things will end your season at this time of the year," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "I was pleased though with how they came out in the second half and took control of the game and didn't allow much in our defensive third. They had very little threats on us in the second half."

Wheaton Warrenville South actually led 1-0 after a goal from senior Rachel Deeman with 27:10 remaining in the first half. It appeared as if her shot caromed slightly off a defender before making its way into the net.

Regardless, it gave the Tigers an early lead despite the fact that they weren't necessarily playing well.

Paige Miller, who as a freshman was playing in her first postseason game, said she wasn't sure why the team started out so slowly.

"We usually get out there and play pretty hard so I don't know what happened," she said. "It was kind of hot so maybe that was it, but I'm not sure."

Fellow freshman Allie Anderson said the Tigers just didn't learn from their early game mistakes.

"We kept making mistakes but didn't correct them," she said. "Finally at halftime we talked about things and understood what we had to do and then we passed more cleanly and played better."

Any hopes that Rolling Meadows (5-12-2) had for pulling off the upset were thwarted in the second half when the Tigers dominated play.

Miller took a pass from senior K.J. Waghorne a little more than six minutes into the second half and sent it in for a 2-0 lead.

"K.J. played a great through ball to me," Miller said. "I just needed to cut in front of a defender, so I did that and the shot was right there so I took it."

The Tigers controlled possession for the majority of the second half and then put the game away with 11:18 remaining when Anderson scored off a nice feed from Miller.

"I saw the ball going into Paige but I had to hold my line to make sure I was not offsides," Anderson said. "She flicked it really good and I just took a touch and hit the back post because the goalie was near side."

The Tigers completed their 15th shutout of the season and have only allowed 7 goals in their last 20 games.

"They took what I said to heart at half," Callipari said. "We played uninspired and very predictable and that's not how we are. We have to play smarter and quicker and to be more aware and we saw some of that in the second half."