On Thursday, April 27, 2023, the Libertyville girls soccer team ended their senior night game locked in a 1-1 tie with the Lake Zurich Bears to remain first in the conference.
It was the moment that every high school athlete dreams of: senior night. With seven seniors, the team remains undefeated in conference with a record of 3-0-1. The team started the season with a 1-0 win over the Hersey Huskies and has kept pushing forward since.
When senior night came around, the team was ready to fight tooth and claw to beat the Bears and give their seniors another win. Lake Zurich fought hard and found early success, but the Wildcats kept fighting to tie up the game in the second half.
Right from the start it was a tough game for both teams. With junior Kate Hopma (00) in the goal, the Wildcat defense looked strong, while the sheer offensive power on both sides guaranteed an exciting match.
The Bears quickly shifted the game in their favor early on, with a quick goal two minutes into the game by senior Maggie Miller (16). After that, the Wildcats had some ground to make up, but the team, especially the seniors, rose to the challenge.
“I love the fact that [the seniors] battled no matter what,” said Coach Daniel DePaz, in his fifth year as the program’s head coach. “We got down early in this game. Maybe questionable whether we should have been down or not but we still battled all the way through, got the tying goal.”
The home team’s tying goal came a few minutes into the second half, courtesy not of a senior, but of freshman Shea Krakowski (16), following a defensive scramble deep into Lake Zurich territory. With the game tied up, the team fought with renewed vigor up until the end.
One thing DePaz enjoyed watching about the game was “just the resiliency.”
One of the seniors on the field for the game was captain Pru Babat (10), in her second full year on the varsity team. While Babat did not play as a freshman, she played on the JV team as a sophomore and was called up to varsity for the playoffs. Her junior and senior years have been marked by a coveted spot on the varsity team.
One thing Babat likes about the team is their “overall competitiveness and eagerness to win games. Even when we are down, like for example tonight, we never gave up.”
Even though the team will be losing Babat and six other seniors at the end of this season, Babat feels that “they have great potential. They have a lot of underclassmen coming in that have a lot of talent and very much could ultimately be the program for the next couple of years.”
The team’s next game will be an away game against the Mundelein Mustangs on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. The next home game will be on Thursday, May 4, 2023, against the Zion-Benton Zee-Bees.