Lady Cyclones look to senior leadership in 2019
Published 6:00 am Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Abigail Addington
Kaylen Shell
Maggie Johnson
Lexie Brown
Photo Contributed/Allen Frost - Lifetouch Photography The Elizabethton Lady Cyclones are preparing to kick off their 2019-2020 season. Members of this year's team include: Abigail Addington, Kaylee Barnett, Lexie Brown, Kimberly Clark, Baylee Creasy, Alexandra Cruz, Reaghan Curde, Savannah Farris, Morgan Heaton, Dana Holsclaw, Maggie Johnson, Tsegerada Lamb, Chloe Moore, McKendra Norris, Maddie O'Quinn, Madelyn Outland, Siana Robey, Kaylen Shell, Lacey Simerly, and Lana Ward. The head coach is Bill McClay and he is assisted by Danny Birkner.
BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Since 2014, the Elizabethton Lady Cyclones soccer program has been unable to get past Greeneville and get to the state tournament.
EHS has suffered shutout losses to the Lady Greene Devils the past two seasons with last year’s crushing 9-0 loss in the region semifinal and a 7-0 whitewashing in the 2017 region final.
“We have our work cut out again,” said Lady Cyclones head coach Bill McClay. “Greeneville is always the team we aim for and the two teams we lost to in the last two seasons have gone on to be in the state finals. “We lost four players to graduation but we still have seven that have had a lot of playing time. We will have a freshman goalkeeper this year Morgan Heaton, who is improving and will get better as the season goes on.
“We will be counting a lot on senior leadership,” McClay continued. “They have seen the ups and downs and have had two pretty good years sandwiched between a not so good one.
“The seniors this year were on the team that beat Dobyns-Bennett and for the first seven games didn’t get scored on.”
The front line should be solid with seniors Kaylen Shell and Lexie Brown on the wings and Maggie Johnson in the middle.
The midfielders will be a mix of seniors and juniors with Kimberly Clark and Baylee Creasy along with Abigail Addison and junior Tserada Lamb.
Junior Siana Robey along with fellow junior Savannah Farris and sophomores Reagan Curde and Maddie O’Quinn will form the backline.
“We have reconfigured a few things and we’re going to have to step up, at least defensively,” McClay said. “Siana Robey is the lone holdover from last year on the backline and I expect Savannah Farris and Reagan Curde to be there also.
“Maddie O’Quinn could step forward – she is fast – and that can be an asset when getting back defensively.”
McClay sees a lot of the same qualities in many of his players and sees many of them as interchangeable parts that can help substitution patterns significantly saying, “I have a lot of similar players, in that they are smart, versatile and I think will give other teams a new look and not lose anything ourselves and hopefully help us keep the pace of the game up.”
Others that saw plenty of action last season are juniors Alexandra Cruz and McKendra Norris and they will see plenty again this season along with sophomore Dana Holsclaw and freshmen Lana Ward and Madelyn Outland.
“With a lot of these girls having similar qualities we could have a substitution pattern similar to 2012 when we went to state,” McClay said.
“We don’t lose anything when we sub these players in but it keeps us fresh. Since we have that ability, we are going to take advantage of it, especially on the outside.
“We scored a lot of goals last year and we were able to because we played well defensively, and that is part of the equation as well.”
The Cyclones (12-6, 5-1 conference in 2018) will have four scrimmages prior to opening the season on August 22 at West Greene.
EHS will scrimmage Volunteer on August 5, Daniel Boone on the 8th and Morristown West on the 13th at home and Tennessee High at Stone Castle on the 15th.
Conference games include August 27 against Volunteer, September 3 against Unicoi County, and September 10 will be a home match against Sullivan Central.
EHS will travel to Sullivan South on September 17 before the final conference match at Greeneville on September 24.
Non-conference games include August 26 at David Crockett and on September 12 EHS will host Tennessee High.
The Cyclones will also host Morristown East on September 19.
In October the Cyclones will be at D-B on the 1st and Cherokee on the 3rd before finishing on October 10 at Morristown West.
