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Lo-Five, High-Five: Quintet of losses spark West to its fifth state championship
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
The Plano West girls soccer team won the Class 5A State Championship Saturday.
But the genesis of the title could actually be traced back to April 3, 2010.
That day, the Lady Wolves lost to district foe McKinney Boyd, 4-0, in the Region I Finals, one of five specific losses over a span of three years that pushed West to ensure it would close out the 2012 season with a state championship.
"When we made it to regionals this time we were all even more determined," said Brooke Ramsier, West junior midfielder. "We were not going to let what happened to us as freshmen happen again."
But Boyd isn't the only playoff loss that motivated the current crop of Lady Wolves.
So did last season's 1-0 bi-district defeat to Coppell. Though the Lady Wolves outplayed the Cowgirls for much of the match, the result represented the only time in program history West hasn't advanced past the first round.
"Those past losses were a huge motivating factor, especially last year," said Casie Ramsier, West junior forward. "Losing sucks, especially losing in the first round."
Despite the early exit in 2011, West came back refocused this season.
"We knew we could do it," said Sparky Fischer, West junior defender. "We had the talent, we had the belief and just knew this was our year."
The Lady Wolves, under first-year head coach Carley Phillips, showed flashes of that during the season. West led the district for much of the way and cracked the top 5 in the national rankings, but also suffered losses to Keller Fossil Ridge, Flower Mound Marcus and Flower Mound along the way.
"I really think the losses made us a better team," Fischer said. "There were plenty of people out there saying, 'West lost all these games' or 'West can't do it this year,' so that really motivated us because we wanted to prove the haters wrong."
As luck, or logical bracket advancement, would have it, West had the opportunity to face all three of the teams it lost to in the regular season again in the postseason.
"The girls just flipped a switch in the playoffs," Phillips said. "They really wanted this and found a way to turn up their play."
Displaying lessons learned from previous playoff and regular season defeats, West avenged each of its 2012 losses in the postseason. The Lady Wolves beat Fossil Ridge (3-2 in the bi-district round), Flower Mound (3-1 in the regional quarterfinals) and Marcus (3-2 in the regional finals).
After two more wins in Georgetown, including Saturday's 1-0 state finals triumph over Katy Seven Lakes, West has the gold medals and title that had eluded the team.
"There were plenty of people who said we couldn't do it," said Taylor Jackson, West junior defender, "but we turned it around and showed that the sweetest revenge is victory."
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