Girls soccer: Showman shines in WW South's win over Geneva

Emma Showman is making her lone season on varsity count.

Showman, a Wheaton Warrenville South senior, never played high school soccer until this season. She opted to play club her first two years of high school before. The pandemic shut down Showman's plans to join the Tigers last spring for her junior year.

"I've always played soccer and this is just my last season I'm going to be playing," Showman said after Wheaton Warrenville's 2-0 victory over Geneva on Tuesday. "I think it's just given me motivation to go my hardest and just try and stay healthy and do my best."

Showman scored WW South's lone first half goal, while Kate Hartnett added an insurance goal with 5:06 left in the second half.

"I decided I wasn't going to play in college," said Showman said, who will study at the University of Illinois next fall. "So, I was like: 'OK, I might as well my last season.'"

"The sport has always been a space that I can go into and just be open-minded and have fun," Showman said of the significance of soccer. "I know I can do my best and that's pretty much all I can give the team. It's fun to be playing with teammates and playing for each other and not just playing for yourself. That's what's good about a team sport."

Tigers coach Guy Callipari was looking forward to having Showman on varsity last season. Callipari and WW South had to wait a whole year to see her on the pitch again - and it was apparently worth the wait.

"I had heard really good things about her," Callipari said. "It's just nice to know that we have somebody in the building who wants to try and be part of the program. With that kind of ability, she makes quite the difference for us."

Callipari says Showman gives the Tigers (7-4, 6-3) a "sense of poise and confidence" on the ball.

"So, everybody feels a little bit better [and] plays to a higher standard because of her - because of the expectation to play at that level," Callipari said. "So, she brings that to the table. She complements both [Rebecca Hauenstein] and Melissa [Hadzic] exceptionally, so they're all on the same page about through-balls or either if we're checking or we're going. There seems to be no confusion amongst those three; it's everybody else that's trying to get [within] the same boxes as they are, and that comes with experience."

Geneva (7-3, 6-3) received a number of high-quality offensive chances from Lilly Coats, Morgan Rudowicz, Rilee Hasegawa and Evyn Schokora throughout the game. But Tigers goalkeeper Caroline Spayth had eight saves to turn in a clean sheet.

The Vikings received an equally strong performance in net from freshman Jordan Forbes, who had seven saves, which included an impressive save late in the first half from the ground after a rebounded chance from Hartnett in traffic.

"Jordan has stepped up for us," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "She's a freshman. We didn't have a lot of keeper options in the entire program this year and she has really stepped up. And, [she's] kind of exceeded expectations so far, which is great to see."

"We're solid throughout. We have a ton of potential," Owens continued. "It's just we need to get everybody clicking together at the same time, and that's part of being young."