Three St. Louis area girls teams aim to defend IL titles

Teddy Bahu

February 1, 2022 @ 06:20 AM

It isn’t very often you see teams from the St. Louis Area dominate the IHSA state series in any sport. But in 2021, all three girls soccer titles were won by schools down south. Althoff Catholic, O’Fallon, and Triad each won a state title last season and all three will contend again this time around. O’Fallon Only three seniors graduated from O’Fallon’s squad last season. The defending 3A champions knocked off Libertyville and Lyons in the state series last June are early favorites to repeat this spring. Numerous Division I commits headline the roster in [player_tooltip player_id="32977" first="Avery" last="Christopher"] (Western Kentucky), [player_tooltip player_id="32982" first="Mackenzie" last="James"] (Western Michigan), [player_tooltip player_id="23372" first="Anna" last="Chor"] (UTEP), and Junior [player_tooltip player_id="23494" first="Kiley" last="McMinn"] (Marquette). Triad Only five seniors are gone from the state’s lone unbeaten program in 2021. Their unbeaten run included wins over both Althoff and O’Fallon last season. Twins Regan and Kendall Chigas might be the best 1-2 keeper punch in the state. Seniors Breanna Zurek, Maddie Milligan, Macy Mell, [player_tooltip player_id="23495" first="Kinlee" last="Lippert"], and a few more bring back plenty of experience. Most of this group will play in college. Look out for juniors [player_tooltip player_id="23503" first="Laney" last="Harshany"] and Gabbie Wood. Althoff The 1A champs have plenty of firepower returning. Regan Moody was one of the biggest stars of the state series last spring. She scored four goals in the first half of the championship game against Timothy Christian. Seniors Kylie Petroski and Leah Crotty also add a lot of experience. Junior Emma Tell will lead a solid back line. Expect some younger players to also take part. All three teams will face one another yet again this spring. An early-season matchup between Althoff and O’fallon will take place march 16th. Triad will host O’Fallon on April 9th. Althoff will plat host to Triad on April 16th.