The Windsor girl’s soccer team was very optimistic heading into this spring.

The reason for the optimism was simple: senior leadership.

The Owls are led by several seniors, including: Kylie Gmerek, Maddie Stringer, Lauryn Kunz, Calli Robertson, Katelin Voegtle, Jaelynn Hunnicutt, Denya Grljevic, Taylor Kelley, Mackenzie Marshall and Jennifer Terrill.

Several of these girls are heading to play in college next year.

The leadership shows.

The Owls have started the year 6-1. The Owls lone loss came in overtime against Seckman.

The outstanding play has seemed to come from pretty much everyone on the team. The team’s goalie, Kylie Gmerek, has had three shutouts and has allowed a grand total of just seven goals. She has now become the school’s all time career leader in shutouts.

Coach Mike Hutchison spoke highly of Kylie.

Hutchison said, “She gives us a lot of confidence in that we don’t have to score many goals and that we can be more defensive minded and know that one or two goals can win a game.”

The goals for the team have also come rather rapidly as well so far, the girls have already seen goals from Maddie Stringer (5), Lauryn Kunz (5), Katelin Voegtle (4 ), Taylor Kelley, Calli Robertson, and Nikki Rice. (1 goal each) With the tremendous play at both ends the team has had so far, it is easy to see why they’ve been able to succeed early this season.

“I think that everybody is contributing. We’re getting big contributions from a lot of different people so teams can’t just focus on one person and try to shut them down because somebody else steps up,” Hutchison said.

With the way the team is playing under their senior leadership, it definitely seems as if the team could go deep into the postseason. After all, the Owls have three players that have been named all state at some point in their career.

As far as the team’s goals go for the postseason, the team’s coach made it clear that the team has set the bar extremely high.

Hutchison said, “We always have extremely high expectations and I don’t want to put a limit on what we can do. We always feel like we’ve got a good shot to be in position to compete for a district title and hopefully move on and have a good chance to win sectionals.”

The girls will look to continue their strong season as they head into their next game on April 10 against St. Vincent.