Awards for the 2011 season.

All-District

Mary Boos

Cate Freeman

Haley Fritzlen

Mary Clare Gibson

Hannah Griffith

Caroline Shay

Allison Schnitker

Meryl Vannoy

Emily Wilborn

Tricia White

All Western Missouri Region

Mary Boos

Haley Fritzlen

Caroline Shay

Allison Schnitker

Meryl Vannoy

Emily Wilborn

Tricia White

West Region Player of the Year - Haley Fritzlen

West Region Defensive POY - Mary Boos

West Region Coach of the Year - Matt Darby

All-State

1st Team

Mary Boos

Haley Fritzlen

Tricia White

2nd Team

Allison Schnitker

Meryl Vannoy

Honorable Mention

Caroline Shay

Missouri Defensive Player of the Year - Haley Fritzlen

KC Star All-Metro

1st Team

Mary Boos

Haley Fritzlen

Sion team awards

Newcomer of the year - Jodie Rellihan

Most Improved - Emily Wilborn

Leadership - Cate Freeman

MVP - Haley Fritzlen

2011 District Champions

2011 State 2nd Place

Notre Dame de Sion falls in Class 2 soccer championship

By CANDACE BUCKNER The Kansas City Star

FENTON, Mo. | After the 2006 season produced Missouri Class 2 co-champions, the Missouri State High School Association deemed that all state title soccer games that remain tied after two overtimes must be determined by penalty kicks.

Since then, no other team in the state has experienced the agony of the rule more than Notre Dame de Sion.

In 2007, the Storm lost the Class 1 championship on penalty kicks, and on Saturday when the Storm's Class 2 title game was tied 1-1, the ultimate prize again came down to penalty kicks.

And once again, Sion fell one kick short. Visitation Academy sealed the championship with a 4-3 edge in penalty kicks and won the game 2-1.

"It's been five years since they changed it, and twice we've lost in PKs," Sion coach Matt Darby said.

With each team having made three penalty kicks, Sion senior Haley Fritzlen started the next session, but her shot clanged off the cross bar. Visitation freshman Elizabeth Hopkins then stepped up for her turn.

"Walking up there," Hopkins recalled, "I was freaking out."

Hopkins picked her spot, and her kick sailed to the left corner of the net past Wilborn, sealing the title.

Posted on Sat, Jun. 04, 2011 10:15 PM

Sion routs Harrisonville, will play for Class 2 soccer title
By CANDACE BUCKNER The Kansas City Star

FENTON, Mo. | Notre Dame de Sion junior forward Caroline Shay has had her fill of third-place soccer trophies. In her first two seasons, the Storm had advanced to the Anheuser-Busch Center for the Missouri Class 2 state-championship weekend but lost both times in the first game.

Although each time Sion turned around and won the consolation prize, Shay did not return this year for another oh-so-close moment. 

Coming every year and then losing, Shay said.  It's just heartbreaking.

On Friday, Shay and the Storm experienced a new emotion.

Five different Sion players scored to defeat Harrisonville 5-0 and advance to the Class 2 state title game today at 4 p.m.

In the championship, they'll face Visitation Academy, 20-5, an all-girls program in St. Louis County.

Shay got Sion, 16-6, headed toward the state title game by dispossessing the ball from a Harrisonville player and taking on some resistance before ripping the net from 15 yards out. 

'At that point, I had just missed so many shots and just been so close, and I just got so angry and determined," Shay said of a near goal in the 35th minute of the first half.  I was just like,  This ball is going in!

Years of state tournament frustration proved to be an intangible that first-time qualifier Harrisonville simply could not match.

As the sun blazed and Sion continued to possess the ball in the Harrisonville half of the field, the Wildcats, 23-5, flattened out and allowed four second-half goals. Junior Mary Boos, sophomore Delaney Bates, junior Jessica Benninghoff and junior Hannah Griffith all scored. 

"Both teams have to deal with the heat and the 80 minutes of play, so that's really no excuse," Harrisonville coach Dan Coleman said. 

"Obviously, giving up that goal late in the half was contrary to the plan, or else we would have made it to halftime 0-0. I think that would have maybe given us more of a spark."

Posted on Fri, Jun. 03, 2011 11:20 PM

GIRLS SOCCER The St. Thomas Aquinas Mo-Kan Tournament features some of the best girls’ soccer teams on both sides of the state line, and on Monday two area teams played Kansas opponents.

3/30/11 Lee’s Summit North outlasted Olathe South 2-1, and Notre Dame de Sion suffered a 2-0 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Kansas 5A-1A defending state champion. In spite of the first-round loss, Sion coach Matt Darby believes this tournament with its stellar competition serves as an early-season litmus test.

“It’s a good little tournament early on in the year to see where we are,” Darby said. “A lot of times, you’re not going to win or play pretty, but if it points out some weaknesses, it’s done it’s job.”

The Aquinas game highlighted Sion’s dilemma in playing with only 14 athletes instead of the Storm’s usual 20-member squad. Junior forward Caroline Shay, who has orally committed to play at Marquette University, will miss several weeks because of mononucleosis, and junior center back Rachel Fenimore is out because of a knee injury. Although the Storm will go without these key players for now, Darby knows that the team cannot relax as more challenges pile on.

“The spring sports season is so fast and so jam packed with games. You throw in spring break and Easter and graduation and final exams,” Darby said. “It’s just a matter of staying healthy, staying confident and playing game in and game out.”

Source: Candace Bucker--KC Star

Wednesday, March 30, 2011