Since 2010, the girls soccer banner, which hangs near the entrance of Kovler Gymnasium, has remained untouched. This will change after the girls soccer team won the Independent School League title, sealed with a 4-0 win against Francis Parker School on May 21. 

The team finished as a co-winner alongside the Latin School and North Shore Country Day School, each with a conference record of five wins and one loss. The head-to-head results confirm the tie: U-High beat North Shore and then lost to Latin, which lost to North Shore earlier in the season.

U-High’s season subsequently ended June 1 with a 0-2 loss in IHSA regionals against Riverside-Brookfield High School.

Athletics Director David Ribbens said he was pleased with the performance the team displayed over the spring en route to a successful season. He emphasized that the strength of schedule was difficult, which made winning ISL even more impressive.

“We play a really strong schedule of games and our conference is really strong so it’s a big accomplishment for the team and the students and the coaches,” Mr. Ribbens said.

Throughout their games, the soccer players managed to go big or go home — in six of their seven total wins, they scored at least three goals, and managed to win five of those by three goals or more. On the contrary, they were unable to score a single goal during any of their losses.

Midfielder Carly Penn, a junior, noted that the season could be summarized through a continual improvement and competitive mindset as a connected team despite adversity.

“I think that we started off kinda shaky, but as the season went on we got to know each other better and we were able to play with each other and connect with each other more,” Carly said. “You could tell everyone was focused on winning and getting better as a team.”

Defender Charlotte Sims, a sophomore, said the success of the team was also credited to the players’ closeness off the field.

“I think the bonding that we were able to achieve off the field towards the end of the season only helped us more on the field,” Charlotte said. “We definitely played some tough games, but we always gave our everything, no matter what the score or the level of the team we were against.”