After losing in the county girls’ soccer semifinals two years in a row as a sophomore and junior I was certain to not let that happen in my senior season. Everyday leading up to my senior season I thought about the semis. What I could do to prevent losing? What I could I do as a captain to help get Wantagh to its first county final ever?

The whole season led to winning counties, but of course first we had to get there. After winning our first two playoff games we were back in the semis – for the third straight season. Every practice came down to this game. Every time we pushed ourselves past our limit – it was for this game.

Going into the game against Garden City we felt confident and ready. This was our game. After all we had beaten Garden City but also lost to GC during the season.
The game was back and forth and extended into double overtimes with no goals. We played 110 minutes of soccer and neither team netted the ball. The game came down to penalty kicks. Crazy to think we played nearly two exhausting hours of soccer and it would come down to one kick.

After losing in PKs I felt awful. The entire season meant nothing and every win and achievement seemed pointless because we didn’t reach our goal. A couple days went by and I felt a little better. I realized there was an important lesson I had learned from this maddening defeat.

I didn’t need a plaque or a piece of felt on a banner. I didn’t need to win that game to be successful. I had gained a family, I smiled at every practice or when I was with this team. Our slogan of the season was “Prove Them Wrong.”

At the end of the season we realized we had proved a lot of people wrong. No one expected us to get to the semifinals or do well at all. Garden City ended up winning the Nassau County Class A title. We had battled them to sudden death PKs.

I’ll always wish the season ended differently, I still wish that we were the county champs but my senior year was incredible. I think the hardest part was trying to grasp the fact that I wouldn’t being seeing or practicing with this team everyday, that was definitely the worst part about losing but, our team’s bond is unbreakable forever. That’s worth more than a win.