The Lady Aces soccer team has found themselves in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2020 and are not looking to slow down any time soon, as they will look to put together another complete team effort in their matchup against Elizabethtown on Thursday.
Owensboro Catholic is coming off a strong performance against Whitefield Academy on Monday, as their offense helped them jump out to a 4-0 lead by halftime before securing the 5-1 victory. Head Coach Andy Hines was thrilled with the way his team came to play, noting that they played arguably the best they have this season.
“I think the goal was obviously to get off to a quick start,” Hines said. “We came out and I think it was about seven minutes in and we’d already scored a goal… The approach was to get out and get a couple goals and then sit back and relax in the game. We did that and played pretty good soccer. Probably some of the best soccer we’ve played in the first half of the game.”
The Lady Aces offense has been clicking on all cylinders in the postseason, scoring 27 goals in five games dating back to district play. Hines said that their ability to score from multiple positions on the field with different skill sets has been a big factor in their success.
“I think we have multiple options to score goals,” Hines said. “I think Mallary Bailey is probably unlucky not to have a goal in that game… We got Maddie, we have Ginny. Ginny has played really really well in the last couple of games. Even Jahaira, Mallary and Aubrey as well give us a little speed and some threats that cause people problems.”
Senior Maddie Hayden and junior Ginny Young have been the key catalysts in their offense, scoring 34 and 26 goals on the season. But Owensboro Catholic will need all of their players chipping in offensively, as the Panthers have a number of threats themselves.
Elizabethtown has 15 different players that have recorded a goal this season, with five of them in double figures. Sophomore Campbell Wallace is the commanding leader with 33 goals, while sophomore Kennedy Carter (18), junior Adelyn Inman (17), senior Emma Zoeller (16) and sophomore Noelle Garcia (12) follow suit.
Hines and his coaching staff has made sure to put in plenty of time into their scouting report for the Elite Eight matchup, noting that they have to do a good job of marking defensively on set pieces.
“I’ve watched a couple of videos on them and talked to some of my buddies and they’ve got a couple of girls that can score,” Hines said. “They’re very good on set pieces. So on throw-ins and corner kicks we have to make sure we don’t lose our marks there and challenge those balls and clear them out.”
And the Lady Aces are more than capable of limiting offenses, having only allowed two goals in their five postseason games as well. This in large part due to their ability to win the possession battle often, something they really figured out towards the latter half of the season with their midfield.
“We’re always trying to be a possession-based soccer team,” Hines said. “So we work a lot on possession. Every practice we have some type of possession drill. It’s getting to the point for three years now that we’ve been able to have that [be a strong suit] as a team.”
With all of these factors, Hines thinks his team will be able to compete with Elizabethtown. He went on to say that it also helps that they have a similar play style to Ohio County in the back, so they are working on defending one-on-one situations in preparation for the game.
Hines and company have enjoyed plenty of success during his tenure, but this group is poised for a long postseason run. But, they are planning to take things one game at a time, starting with a focus on maximum energy and effort on the pitch at 7 p.m. on Thursday against the Panthers in Elizabethtown.
“We’re going to have to put the ball in the back of the net,” Hines said. “We’ll have to defend and play as a team. We have those games where we have everybody playing—Monday night was one of them. Everybody showed up, everybody played hard and everybody played well. There’s times where we have two or three people playing hard and playing well. So playing well, putting the ball in the back of the net and defending hard [will be key].”
