Some say good things come in threes. But just maybe they come in fours. The George Mason High School girls soccer team won its fourth consecutive Virginia High School League Group A championship on Saturday.
Some say good things come in threes. But just maybe they come in fours.
The George Mason High School girls soccer team won its fourth consecutive Virginia High School League Group A championship on Saturday.
The Mustangs defeated familiar foe Clarke County 2-0 to claim the title for an unprecedented fourth straight year. The finals were played at Radford University.
“Every year the team is different,” said Mason head coach Jennifer Parsons. “At the beginning of the season you’re always trying to figure out the best way to be successful.”
Parsons credits the leaders on the Mustangs’ team for this year’s success. Remarkably, seniors Elle Silverman, Hannah Walker and Violet Miller – who all played as freshman – never lost in the postseason throughout their high school careers.
“In the past we’ve had leaders that are very vocal leaders,” Parsons said. “Our captains and seniors are more leaders that set the example and set the standard. They go and they set the bar with how well they play and expect their teammates to play at that level as well. I think that’s a pretty important thing. Every person on the team has so much respect for them.”
The season started out slowly for this year’s Mustangs. The team began 2-4, including losing four consecutive matches before Bull Run District play began. But with the beginning of District play, Mason took off. The Mustangs won 18 consecutive matches en route to capturing the Bull Run District, Region B and Group A titles, and finished the year 20-4. During the 18-match win streak, the Mustangs outscored their opponents 121 to 4.
The only team to score against Mason during this streak was Clarke County, who the Mustangs saw five times – twice in the regular season, as well as in the Bull Run District, Region B and Group A finals.
Miller and junior Leah Roth scored the two goals in the championship game.
“It’s definitely a challenge playing a team for the fifth time,” Parsons said. “We tried to take a different approach to all of our games. We were starting to focus more on us than on who we were playing. I thinking take that approach was helpful. You get so familiar with a team, it becomes more of a mental battle. We really tried to focus on the things we do well and how well we attack. If we do those things well, we’re basically unstoppable.”
To get to the finals, Mason knocked off rival Radford High 5-0 in the semifinals on Friday. The two schools had battled in the championship game the previous two seasons.
One thing that Parsons takes away from this fourth consecutive title is how humble her team has been through all of this.
“I think the girls on the team are very modest, for what they’ve done over their careers,” she said.
