Weddington’s girls soccer team is young, but talented

The Weddington girls’ soccer team has been on the brink of accomplishing something big the last three seasons.

Since joining the Southern Carolinas Conference and class 3A in 2010, Coach Powell Williams has team have gone 48-14-5, finishing no worse than second in the conference and making the playoffs each season.

Weddington also has won at least one playoff game each season, with back-to-back 1-0 overtime losses to Charlotte Catholic in the last two years after losing 1-0 to Marvin Ridge in the state quarterfinals in 2010.

“We’re always a good team with good players and have been right there with a chance in the playoffs,” said Williams, in his sixth year as the Warriors’ head coach. “But for one reason or another, we just haven’t been able to get by Catholic or Marvin (Ridge) when it counts. We want to go deeper in the playoffs, but we just have to concentrate on playing our best soccer. We can’t worry about what other teams are doing right now.”

Williams entered the 2013 season with a relatively young team. Only one senior starter returned: Callie Efird. But the the team is loaded with talent and experience, beginning with junior co-captains Chandler Arrowood (Western Carolina commit) and Virginia Lingo (UNC Charlotte commit). Arrowood (14 goals last season) and Lingo (10 goals, 12 assists last year) run an offense that has had to adjust without senior forward Auburn Mercer, who graduated early (December) to attend and play soccer at University of Alabama.

But Weddington’s co-captains – along with Efird, sophomore Lexi Kahrnak and freshman Emily Hilliard – are starting to form an offensive unit that has netted three or more goals in half of their games.

While the offense is stacked, the defense also looks good, according to Williams, with sophomore center back Olivia Seybold and junior Stephanie McGough leading the way.

Weddington is 5-2-1 and No. 9 in the 3A coaches’ poll.

“I feel like we’ve already come a long way this year,” Arrowood said. “We started off a little slow but have really started to develop a team chemistry. I think we’ve figured out you don’t have to be a senior to be a leader. Virginia and I have tried to step up and be leaders on and off the field. We feel like we have a great chance to have a big year.”

Williams also is intrigued by Hilliard, who he says has displayed the talent to play for a major college. Hilliard also has the pedigree. Her brother, Tomas, who was an all-state pick at Providence Day, is committed to play soccer at Stanford University.

Hilliard is getting a lot of support from Arrowood and Lingo in the central midfield.

“I really feel like we have a lot of playmakers on this team, which makes us tough to defend,” Williams said. “The great thing is most of our girls are either sophomores or juniors. For at least the next two years, I feel like we have a chance to have great teams.”

The team is focused on the meat of their SCC schedule with Sun Valley (Mar. 26) and then archrival Marvin Ridge (Apr. 9), right after spring break. The team also has a 1-0 win over Porter Ridge.

“Our conference is tough every game, there are no nights off,” Williams said. “Every conference game is huge, because the difference in finishing first or second or third place can be huge in playoff seeding and who and where you play.”

Williams players also feel like they have a big opportunity this season and don’t want to let it pass.

“We know we have been right there,” Arrowood said. “We feel like this is our best chance to get past (Charlotte) Catholic and some other teams, because they lost some key players. We’ve good a great team, now we have to prove it.”