Girls soccer: Tri-Cities all-area team

Lexi Baltes St. Charles East

If you only ever saw Lexi Baltes play basketball, you only got to see one portion of the senior's incredible athletic skills, never mind her talents with a tennis racket in her hands. But in the spring, Baltes is a girls soccer player and she showed time and again how strong she is as a midfielder. In fact, the tougher, the more physical the matches, the stronger Baltes seemed to play. "I know she didn't play high school soccer last year," St. Charles East girls soccer coach Paul Jennison said. "I have not seen a more professional young lady in my life than this girl. She is the epitome of hard work. She is never, ever going to put up her hand and ask to come off. She leads by example and will give you everything she has." A description like that may give the impression that Baltes is just a grinder who hasn't got great skills. Yet that's not nearly the case. "She's technically second to none," Jennison said. "It's incredible to see her play this well. She's going to go on to college and play basketball and she's going to be phenomenal at it. She could also be a great soccer player in college if she decided that was what she wanted to do." Baltes will play basketball for Illinois Wesleyan this winter.

Hillary Cooper Batavia

How many key goals did Hillary Cooper score for Batavia this spring? You'll run out of fingers trying to do the math. In her final season with the Bulldogs before heading to Eastern Kentucky, Cooper repeatedly netted goals that made a difference. And she also formed a deadly goal scoring partnership with Abby Gray, who will certainly benefit from the experience when she returns for her own senior season in 2011. "(Gray) has learned a lot from Cooper," McAlpin said. "She was pretty raw when she came here, pretty inexperienced at this level. (Cooper) sort of took her under her wing. A lot of Gray's goals the last couple of weeks in the regular season were due to the influence (Cooper) had on her." Cooper got her share of goals as well, showing a willingness to track back to the midfield or even to wide positions to win the ball. Then she used her speed to accelerate past defenders.

Stephanie Davison Geneva

As scary moments go, there wasn't one any worse for Geneva's soccer team this spring than when Stephanie Davison fell to the ground with what looked like a serious knee injury during the St. Charles Invitational. Coach Megan Owens raced to see her fallen defender, and after Davison was removed from the field, initial diagnosis was not promising. Fortunately, early thoughts that Davison had torn her anterior cruciate ligament faded. There was some ligament damage, but nothing was torn and Davison was eventually able to return to play for the Vikings - and her contributions late in the season were massive. Time and again, especially in the team's season-ending loss to St. Charles North, Davison was exactly where she needed to be. "It was a gut-wrenching experience when she went down," Owens said. "She's such a great kid and we were so happy to have her back. She was outstanding in the playoffs. She was so aggressive and you can't replace her leadership at the back." Davison, described as "a rock" defensively for the Vikings, will play in this fall for Regis University in Colorado.

Leah DeMoss St. Charles North

The Captain of the Tri-Cities All-Area team, DeMoss capped a stellar career with a superb senior season. DeMoss scored 23 goals and added 19 assists. She finished her career with 62 goals and 48 assists. She is tied for the school record in goal scoring and holds the team's assist record. She will play college soccer at Iowa. "She was the same hardworking player this year that I saw as a freshman," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "I spent four years trying to get her to see how good she was. This year, she did. It's not about the scoring that she did, but it was about the way she worked to help her teammates." DeMoss joined Paige Dusek and Kristen Manski as being all-state players for the North Stars - the first time the school had three all-state players in one season.

Paige Dusek St. Charles North

It's rare for any soccer team to have one 20-goal scorer. This year, St. Charles North had two - and Dusek proved that it's possible to score large numbers of goals even from wide positions on the field. Dusek finished with 25 goals and 18 assists, numbers that helped her earn a spot on this year's all-state team. "We knew she was an offensive player and that she could dominate in the offensive third," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "She did everything an offensive player can do and she's playing on the outside." Always a player with great speed, Dusek adapted this year and used that speed to devastating effect. "She had a fire and desire to score that was different than before," Vostal said. "I think part of it was her growth in maturity in recognizing what was going on in the run of play." From a tactical standpoint, one of the problems with players who are very fast is that they often tend to stray offside. That happened much less frequently for Dusek this year, even with teams employing various offside traps to try to negate the North Stars attacking power. "We talked a lot about bending runs, making angled runs at the defense," Vostal said. "We told her that a player with her speed didn't have to be even with her defender - that she could still be behind her defender and still get through." Dusek will play college soccer at Drake University.

Emily Heimerdinger Kaneland

Everyone was aware that Emily Heimerdinger was going to be one of the key Kaneland players this year, so every one of the Knights opponents made preparations to defend the top-notch junior forward. And it didn't make any difference. Heimerdinger scored 22 goals and had 16 assists as Kaneland soared to a 15-3-5 record. "This is not a fluke," Kaneland girls soccer coach Scott Parillo said. "It's three years in a row that she has been able to put the ball in the back of the net. She was double- and triple-teamed and she was still able to find the open player." As strong as Heimerdinger is in attack, she is equally adept when moving into midfield either to provide depth or to win the ball away from the other team's defensive attentions. "She has come a long way since she was a freshman," Parillo said. "People who just look in the paper and see her name for scoring goals have no idea all the other things that she can do." A captain on Kaneland's girls basketball team and a talented softball player - if she chose to play the sport in high school - Heimerdinger is one of the top students in the Class of 2011 and already has colleges lining up to secure her services after she graduates. "She will undoubtedly be one of the leaders next year," Parillo said. "There will be others, but she is the one."

Sammi Hill Geneva

Modern soccer forwards have to be more than just clinical finishers. They have to contend with defenders who are faster and more skillful than ever before. Hill is perfectly suited for dealing with that kind of opposition because her ball skills are second to none and she showed time and again this spring how her speed can cause problems. Hill, who is bound for Northern Illinois this fall, scored 16 goals and added 10 assists for the Vikings. "She was quite a threat up top and came through in the clutch a lot of times," Geneva girls soccer coach Megan Owens said. "Teams really struggled to contain her." Hill was named All-Conference by the Western Sun Conference and garnered All-Sectional honors by the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association. "She's a really gifted athlete and it's going to be really tough to replace that speed next year," Owens said. "And on top of it, she's a really nice kid, a really nice person."

Maggie Hoscheit St. Charles East

The fact that St. Charles East is strong as a defense and that Maggie Hoscheit is a tremendous defender is no small coincidence. The senior capped her career with another standout season in the Saints back line. "She's very, very solid," St. Charles East girls soccer coach Paul Jennison said. "She's a natural leader. She's progressed tremendously this year with her footwork. She's brought a new dimension to her game." Starting with goalkeeper Zoie Samaan and then fellow defender Shaylee Pedersen, both seniors, the Saints had a defense that was not only good but experienced. Hoscheit, who earned all-sectional and all-conference honors this year, proved she deserved to be rated with the best in the area. "She's very solid in the air," Jennison said. "She controls the back line. And she's fearless." Hoscheit will continue her career this fall at Illinois Wesleyan.

Tory Kinniard Batavia

Batavia had a number of solid senior players this year. But when things got a little crazy and someone needed to step forward to make key play in central midfield, more often than not it was Kinniard who made those plays. "For three years, she's been such a stalwart for us," Batavia girls soccer coach Jim McAlpin said. "I've never heard her say a negative thing about anybody on the team. She's always positive." In Batavia's season-ending loss to St. Charles North, Kinniard was one of the keys to her team taking the lead and her ability to keep the pressure off the defense helped the Bulldogs remain competitive in the match as long as the did. "If she plays poorly, she steps up and says that we played poorly," McAlpin said. "If we play well, then she's happy about that. She is one of those players who is a coach on the field. She will be missed." Kinniard will play for Central Michigan this fall.

Kristen Manski St. Charles North

It wasn't that Kristen Manski wasn't a very good goalkeeper in her first years in high school. But in her senior year, she reached a higher level and was a key defensive figure in the team's run to third place in Class 3A. Manski was one of the North Stars three all-state players this year. "Going into the season, she sent me this long e-mail saying how this season was going to be different," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "She worked hard on her weaknesses and, by the end of the year, she didn't have many." Vostal said one key was increasing Manski's confidence. "If you look at our supersectional game against Barrington, when (Manski's) coming out and yelling and organizing - that's where she really improved," Vostal said. Manski also benefited from working with former St. Charles North star goalie Erin Kane this season. "Having a goalkeeper to work on her to help make her better was so important," Vostal said. "(Kane) knows a lot of those things that I personally don't know." Manski will play college soccer for Valparaiso.

Kara Miller St. Charles North

Of the traits shown this spring by St. Charles North, one of the most lasting is the blue collar work ethic they showed. There was never a head ball that didn't have to be challenged for or a tackle that wasn't made. Defensively, the leader of that group was Miller, who rarely put a foot wrong and kept the team's defensive unit very tight and compact. "We talked at our banquet how she's one of those players who truly outworked her opponents on every occasion this year," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "Her biggest improvement has been her mental focus. The spirit she had for her team was the highest." Vostal talked throughout the season about how, despite the talent on the team, how the North Stars never shirked the little things in order to be successful. In the team's supersectional win against Barrington and then in St. Charles North's consolation match success against Glenbrook South, Miller hardly put a foot wrong. "I think, this year, that she fought every play for her teammates," Vostal said. "She doesn't get scared of frustrated, no matter whether we've given her the other team's best forward to defend or anything else we've asked her to do." Miller will attend Indiana University but will not play college soccer.

Special mention

Samantha Duarte, Rosary, so., MF; Sammy Gage, St. Charles North, jr., MF; Megan Gil, Kaneland, sr., D; Jordan Ginther, Kaneland, fr., GK; Jessica Janota, Rosary, sr., F; Dana Landem, Batavia, sr., D; Amanda Lulek, Geneva, fr., F; Gina Peri, Geneva, sr., D; Jessica Saffell, West Aurora, so., F; Zoie Samaan, St. Charles East, sr., GK.

Honorable mention

Becky Bartos, Batavia, sr., D; Andie Bruce, Kaneland, sr., F; Brianna Burkett, West Aurora, sr., GK; Laura Butz, Rosary, sr., MF; Jacqueline Cardoza, Aurora Central, so., GK; Priscilla Diaz, West Aurora, sr., D; Liz Drennan, St. Charles East, sr., D; Sam Cowles, Aurora Central sr., F; Alex Gage, St. Charles North, so., MF; Thalia Garcia, Kaneland, sr., MF; Colleen Gebauer, Kaneland, sr., MF; Abby Gray, Batavia, jr., F; Elena Mudrak, Batavia, sr., GK; Shaylee Pederson, St. Charles East, sr., D; Alyssa Peterson, St. Charles North, sr., MF; Katie Petrando, Rosary, sr., D; Abbey Schroeder, Geneva, sr., F; Hannah Schweigart, Batavia, jr., MF; Madeline Tennant, Geneva, sr., MF; Sarah Tennant, Geneva, sr., MF.

The winners

Conference champion

St. Charles North

Regional champions

Geneva, Rosary, St. Charles North

Sectional champion

St. Charles North

Supersectional champion

St. Charles North

The future

Teams to watch in 2011

Kaneland, St. Charles North, Geneva

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<h2>Related documents</h2>

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<li><a href="/pdf/trigirlssoccerfront10.pdf">Tri-Cities all-area team Page 1</a></li>

<li><a href="/pdf/trigirlssoccerteam110.pdf">Tri-Cities all-area team Page 2</a></li>

<li><a href="/pdf/trigirlssoccerteam210.pdf">Tri-Cities all-area team Page 3</a></li>

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