Girls soccer: Previewing the Class 3A state semifinals

When: Friday, Saturday

Where: North Central College, Naperville.

After losing five all-state players between, and over a dozen players to Division-I schools between them, look who's back in the Final Four of the Class 3A state tournament this weekend?

Barrington, Naperville North and New Trier, three programs synonymous with success in the state of Illinois since girls soccer was introduced by the IHSA in the spring of 1988.

If you ask Ryan Stengren (Barrington), Steve Goletz (Naperville North) and Jim Burnside from New Trier, all would agree the 2019 version of their respective teams are not what they were last year. and Burnside would admit the 2019 version of his team is not what each had a year ago.

Heavy graduation and the aforementioned losses of top-flight talent left all three with young and inexperienced rosters, yet still talented but for this trio to return says plenty of each coaching staff, player's growth, and quality schedules to help prepare for the state series.

Barrington lifted the state championship trophy the last two seasons, both times in dramatic style over New Trier in penalty kicks. The Trevians won three straight from 2014-2016, then Naperville North in 2012 and 2013.

Collectively, these storied programs have 26 top three state trophies between them, with New Trier leading the way with 11 which includes six state titles.

Here is a quick look at both state semifinal games to be played on Friday:

Naperville North (13-5-4) vs. Lyons Township (18-2-3), 5 p.m.Outlook: After their 2-1 victory over Lyons Township in their second group play contest of the Naperville Invite the Huskies stood at 7-3-1 at the halfway point of the season.

Since then, Goletz's club has gone 6-2-3, including a hard-fought 2-1 comeback victory over Minooka in the supersectional with Katie Murphy and Emily Dulik providing goals.

"The girls found a way to battle game-in and game-out and to continue to get a little better each time out and I really believe the schedule that we played prepared us to know what we needed to work on in order to get back to state," says Goletz.

The return of Wisconsin-bound Maddie Schlecht from club to join with Leah Shumate and Hannah Martin has given the Huskies a terrific trio of attacking players, whom Goletz leans on for creativity and scoring.

Lyons Township has been flying under the radar, but opponents of LT would suggest otherwise.

With 5-foot-11 Eileen Murphy (22 goals) running the show in the LT attack, and a strong group of complimentary players around their University of Illinois-bound midfielder, coach Bill Lanspearys' club is back in the tournament for the first time since 2007 and seventh in program history.

The Lions came close to their record of 24-2-2 (1997) when they finished second overall to St. Charles.

The only two blemishes on LT's record are to Naperville North and New Trier, each by a final of 2-1.

Barrington (21-1-1) vs. New Trier (21-2-5), 7 p.m.The Fillies survived a St. Charles North club filled with revenge Tuesday night to advance into their third-straight state tournament and fourth in the last seven seasons.

"The girls have come to realize the soccer season is a marathon, and in order to get far into the tournament, you'll have to grind out wins in the real tough hard-fought games," says Stengren.

"North came into our stadium the other night wanting to avenge a loss in the supers to us, so it was important that we came out ready to play from the very start and when Ellie McAuley scored two minutes into the game it was exactly what we needed to help us defeat a very athletic and talented opponent."

From 2016 when: Christine Batliner, Ashley Prell, Ashley Rocco and Madi Rosen made their first appearance with the big club, the Fillies have recorded an astounding 91-7-4 overall record with back-to-back victories in shootouts over New Trier in the state final.

Barrington is back despite not having its 2018 leading scorer and all-state forward Prell available after ACL surgery during the offseason, but Stengren and his staff would find a way to coax four of their players to net 10 goals or more to make up for the loss of Prell.

All-state defender Rosen (Loyola) named all-state along with Batliner, just as worthy of the same honor as Rosen, together with Juliana Moreno and Kate McGreevy make up a marvelous back line that defends, distributes and can get forward with the best of them.

New Trier will enter this semifinal looking to erase those two bitter shootout defeats of 2017 and 2018 following its 16th shutout of the season went it beat Stevenson 2-0 on Tuesday at the Fremd supersectional.

The Trevians are a hardworking, high work rate club with a terrific back line of their own, mostly rebuilt from a year ago when Sydney Parker (DePaul) and others led the way.

What the Trevians have that no other club does is a brilliant goal scorer.

Junior Emma Weaver, whose performances this season set her apart from the others, has already signed to play at Villanova in the fall of 2020 and will look to add to the 30 goals she's bagged thus far.