Girls soccer preview: New players to emerge for 5A favorites

The top girls soccer teams in Class 5A separated themselves from the rest of their competition last season.

Coronado, the fourth seed in the state tournament, walked away with the title in the end.

The Cougars are expected to compete at the top of 5A again this season, which begins Thursday. Bishop Gorman and Faith Lutheran should also be contenders. All three teams will take part in a tournament in South Tahoe against Northern Nevada teams starting Friday.

The event should be a good test given each program is trying to replace some key pieces.

“I would expect those groups to be there again at the end of this,” Bishop Gorman coach Doug Borgel said. “I don’t know if there’s a real clear favorite. There were a lot of really good players that graduated from all those schools. Each of us will have a little bit more of a learning curve to figure out who’s going to be your players to lean on.”

The Gaels graduated Hunter Borgel, a two-time 5A golden boot winner, and Kennedy Herman, an All-Southern Nevada first-team selection. Bishop Gorman does return Stephenie Hackett, who scored 17 goals last season.

“We’ll be looking for some kids to step up (offensively),” Borgel said. “Defensively, we’ll be pretty strong. Most of our returning core is defense. We’ll be able to hold things down while we figure out the offensive part early in the season. Once we put that piece together, I think we’ll be pretty formidable.”

Coronado also has to replace 5A offensive player of the year Aubrey Wagner and goalie of the year Megan Kingman. Cougars coach Dana Neel said she expects her defense to be strong, led by returners Cate Gusick and Tielua Baptista.

“It’s going to be new for a lot of us,” Neel said. “We have strong players that have been through it a couple of times and they’ll be good leaders for us. We’ll pull it together.”

Faith Lutheran defeated Coronado for the title in 2022 and lost to the Cougars in last year’s title game. The Crusaders have brought in a new coach, Carl Cort, to lead the program. He’ll have a talented crop of young players, but will have to replace outgoing seniors such as Andrea Leyva.

Borgel said while there could always be a surprise team that contends for the championship, he expects the top teams to be competing for the state title in the Southern-only classification.

“(Faith Lutheran has) a lot of good young players,” Borgel said. “Coronado is always a solid team. I’d expect those to be the teams to beat and then there’s the rest of us seeing if we can figure it out in time to get on a roll.”

Neel said the early part of the year will be an “experimental” time for her team to figure out who will step into what roles.

“We learned last year that the season is a process and our starting point is not our finishing point,” Neel said. “We have these next few months to work through that process. … That’s what I had last year. There were players who were ready and ready for that challenge.”

In 4A, Foothill won the Southern Region title but lost to Northern champion McQueen for the state championship. Centennial and Doral Academy are also expected to contend in 4A.

Pahrump Valley claimed the 3A title with a thrilling overtime victory in the state title match. The Trojans graduated several starters from last year’s team but should be in the mix again this season.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.