Lady Dragons best Hebron, face Nelson

As the seconds ticked down to the start of his team’s game against Lewisville Hebron, Carroll girls soccer coach Matt Colvin kept the talking points on everything but one word: revenge.

But after Friday’s 1-0 Class 6A Region I area playoff victory over the Lady Hawks at Hebron, the Lady Dragons naturally felt the satisfaction of eliminating a team that eliminated them in the Region I championship game in 2014. Hebron beat Carroll, 1-0, and went on to win the state championship last year.

Oddly, 2015 mirrored 2014. Hebron’s lone score came early in the second half. Carroll’s only tally came about six minutes into the second half, when Grace Cory took a feed from Danielle Dennis and beat the Hebron keeper on a one-timer.

Carroll (21-2-2) advanced to the Region I quarterfinals, where it was to meet Byron Nelson at the Birdville Fine Arts and Athletics Complex. The winner advanced to the Region I tournament Friday at Midland’s Grande Communications Stadium where it met the winner of Lubbock Monterey-Fort Worth Paschal in the semifinals. Scoring chances were kept to a minimum. Carroll only had six, while Hebron had only five.

“We’ve always matched up with them in the playoffs and known how talented they are,” Colvin said. “When we looked at the playoff brackets, we were definitely excited about the opportunity to potentially play them again.”

That’s where the Carroll mentality makes a difference in important games. Carroll’s history of athletic success in just about every sport transitions from one generation to the next. Players just expect to win big games.

So even though this game was being played in the other team’s backyard, this group didn’t flinch. Colvin said his assistant Paul Lee typically uses a pregame video to serve as a motivator. When he met with captain Mary Meehan, he asked her which theme to go with, a “we’ve worked hard to get to this point,” type or a “we’re the underdog” approach.

Meehan deadpanned to Lee, “We’re not the underdog.” And that’s why Carroll continued playing in the postseason.

“All we did was look at what they do and what we needed to do in order to prepare,” Colvin said. “We did a lot of homework and our sessions were geared to stop them and how we can exploit the small openings.”

Carroll’s defense played so strict that Colvin said Hebron really could never mount a scoring threat to produce an equalizer. Keeper Jamie Phelps did not have to make a challenging save.

Playing the wind

The soccer season is at a point where the weather patterns are changing and stiff winds from the south are usually a part of the action. The strategy of dealing with them is how a team will react should it give up a goal when it’s going against it. Carroll went against the wind in the first half against Hebron but came away tied at the half, 0-0.

“The first thing about dealing with the wind is the makeup of your team,” Colvin said. “Once we got through the first 15 minutes of the game, the team felt pretty comfortable.”

About Byron Nelson

This is the second all-time meeting between these two teams. Carroll beat Nelson, 1-0, in a non-district match in January 2014. When Colvin scouted Nelson on Friday against Colleyville Heritage, that was the first time this year.

“Ansley Bunger is very good and Katina (Tsapos) runs the show,” Colvin said. “But at this time of year everybody is good. You take nothing for granted.”

Notable

Carroll has reached 20 wins in a season for the 11th time in the program’s history.

This story was originally published April 6, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Lady Dragons best Hebron, face Nelson."