With just two starters returning from last season, one of the keys for this year’s Ooltewah girls’ soccer team is to gain experience.
This weekend’s Chattanooga Christian tournament is helping the new Lady Owls get it quickly.
Ooltewah won its opener 1-0 over Tullahoma on Friday afternoon at CCS and will face the host Lady Chargers in a Blue Division semifinal at 10:30 this morning.
“It’ll be good to get three games in this weekend,” Lady Owls coach Rick Adolph said. “It’s going to give the girls some good experience at the start of the season.”
Friday’s match was the second of the year for Ooltewah, which had its season opener postponed because of bad weather. The teams battled throughout the first half but went into the break without a goal.
“We played in spurts, but it was a great game,” Adolph said. “It went back and forth the whole time. The girls had some opportunities to make good decisions, and as the game went along they got better. We started playing more under control.”
The game remained scoreless until stoppage time, when Ooltewah’s Hannah Squires scored on a pass from Claire Ingalls. Lady Owls senior keeper McKenzie Bailey helped preserve the shutout with her 10 stops.
“She made some great saves,” Adolph said. “She came on at the end of last year, and she’s come up big and done a good job.”
Chattanooga Christian earned its semifinal spot with a 3-1 victory against Anderson County. The Lady Mavericks scored on their first offensive possession, but CCS got an equalizer and the go-ahead goal before halftime.
Logan Mays had a goal and an assist for the Lady Chargers, who will try to reach the 5 p.m. bracket final.
“This is a time to start getting things together,” CCS coach Cal Sneller said, “but I think they did a nice job.”
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