The season opened with a loss for the St. James High Lady Tiger soccer squad.

However, the improvement made from one season to the next was obvious in the season-opener.
St. James opened the campaign by falling at home to Marshfield Friday, March 20 at Tiger Field.

Marshfield shut out St. James in last season’s opener. However, Friday the Lady Tigers proved to be a much tougher foe.

It was a scoreless tie at the end of regulation and overtime Friday. The game then went to penalty kicks, and the Marshfield Lady Jays pulled out a 3-2 victory.

Senior Baylee Jones tossed a shutout in goal during regulation for St. James. Getting the Lady Tiger PK goals were senior Sophie Deluca and senior Mike’ Nunnery.

The Lady Tigers are scheduled to play again Monday, March 30 at Clayton.
STJ head coach Emily Mueller has her most experienced team this spring. She has 21 players on the roster this year.

“Things are pretty promising,” said Mueller, in her fourth season as Lady Tiger head coach. “We’re hoping for our first winning record in quite some time. I think we have improvement everywhere. When we first started we concentrated on building a strong defense. Now we’re working on building a strong midfield.

“This is the first year our whole starting lineup has played soccer before. We are at a lot faster pace now, and we have more field awareness.”

Jones is the keeper, with junior Lillian Snelson her backup.

In the backfield the Lady Tigers are starting sophomore Jaylin Durrett and junior Lily Davis.
In the midfield are Deluca, senior Isabelle Bolte, sophomore Kaelyn Smith and junior Viviana Parsons.
At forward are seniors Ava Snyder and Nunnery.

“Having a strong midfield will be key,” Mueller said. “They are able to play both sides of the ball really well. Bolte and Deluca are our captains. We depend on them to lead the team.”

The schedule:

March 20 - Lost to Marshfield, 3-2 (PK)

March 30 - at Clayton, 5:45 p.m.

April 3 - at Crocker, 5 p.m.

April 6 - at West Plains, 5 p.m.

April 7 - Gateway Legacy, 5 p.m.

April 9 - at St. Clair, 5 p.m.*

April 10 - Mtn. View Liberty, 5 p.m.

April 13 - at Fatima, 5 p.m.

April 14 - Union, 5 p.m.*

April 16 - Sullivan, 5 p.m.*

April 20 - Pacific, 5 p.m.*

April 21 - at Laquey, 5 p.m.

April 23 - at Owensville 5 p.m.*

April 24 - California, 5 p.m.

April 27-May 2 - Owensville Tourney

May 4 - St. Clair, 5 p.m.*

May 5 - Blair Oaks, 5:30 p.m.

May 7 - Dixon, 5 p.m.

May 11 - Owensville, 5 p.m.

May 12 - at Osage, 6:45 p.m.

May 14 - at North County, 5 p.m.

*-Four Rivers Conference Game