“5… 4… 3… 2… 1!” The VWS soccer team won the CIF Southern Section Division 6 championship game against Arrowhead Christian at their home game on Saturday, February 26th. The day was marked in the Webb history books because the 2021-2022 VWS soccer team is the first ever girls’ school sport to win a CIF championship.
But the fight is not over quite yet. VWS soccer qualified to play in the state regional tournament for the title of regional champions in the Southern California bracket. The state regional tournament is compiled of teams ranging from Division 5-7 who played in their division’s respective CIF championship game.
The soccer team earned the number one seed in the Division 5 state regional tournament and received a first-round bye, which means they gained an automatic win for the quarterfinal round and advanced to the semifinal round.
VWS soccer has worked hard all season with an 18-0 record. The team has fought especially hard for their record, as demonstrated after the amazing comeback against AB Miller in the semifinals game on February 24th.
The Vivian Webb soccer team scored four goals in the second half after being down 3-2 in the first half. The team strives to bring that same energy displayed in their semifinal and championship game to the state regional tournament.
The regional semifinals game will be played this Thursday, March 3rd. The CIF champs will host either Mount Miguel, from San Diego, or GALA, from Los Angeles.
If the team wins on Thursday, they will set themselves up for a possible rematch against the second seed team, Arrowhead Christian, the CIF finalists.
“The girls are feeling very excited about the upcoming [game] and I’m sure there’s a little bit of nerves going around too since we just won CIF and we want to defend our championship title,” said Abbey Cook (‘23), junior team captain of the VWS varsity soccer team. “We need to be very focused when playing these important games especially since the team we might play in the state regional championship is the team we beat 3-2 for the CIF championship.”
The team has been training in preparation for this moment since the start of the season and the players cannot wait to see where they can take VWS next.
“It’s unfortunate that we do not have three full days of practice because of the circumstances, [Unbounded], but I think at the end of the season its less about time in practice and more about rejuvenating and recovering and talking about what the strategy is going into these next few games,” said Malick Mbengue, head coach for the VWS soccer team. “I just keep reminding the players that the season is not over and that we still have history to make.”
*Note: The author of this article is a current player on the VWS varsity soccer team.
