Megging the Competition

When the clock hit zeros on Sep. 12, the Highland girls soccer team rushed the field as screams of jubilation rang through the air. For the first time since Oct. 2, 2014, Highland defeated East. After narrowly losing to East in penalty kicks earlier this year, Highland got its revenge in a 2-1 victory over its cross-town rivals.
And just like that, a decade of frustration was suddenly gone.
This is just the latest step forward for the Highland team, as it is showing substantial growth from the past few years.
“This is our best season by far. We’re applying tactics that are really helpful and bring out our strengths as a team,” Highland coach Robin Heath said. “This is a really resilient bunch, and they’re very talented as well. We’re beating teams that we haven’t beat in over a decade.”
Leading the way is senior Meg Murdock.
As a team captain, Murdock has made a very noticeable difference in turning her soccer team around. Murdock is one of three captains that lead the charge each, and this position for her has been a long time coming and a lot of preparation.
“Meg was a no-brainer for captain this year,” Heath said.
Luckily, she had plenty of examples that paved a path for her to follow.
“I just looked up to all the girls my freshman and sophomore year and learned to be like them and followed what they’ve done,” Murdock said.
She’s leaving the same lasting impact on the younger classmen that she’s leading now.
“I think this might be my best season at Highland. We all just have really good chemistry, and we work well on the field together. I think this year is going to be really fun,” Highland sophomore Sofie Ray said. “I think it’s going to be the best we’ve been in a while. We’re already doing pretty good and I think we can make it far.”
Ray looks at Murdock as one of the main reasons why.
“I think Meg is a great leader because she’s very supportive. She always hypes everyone up. She always tries really hard,” Ray said. “That’s mainly what I look up to her for. It’s how hard she works at practice and on the field.”
This hard work is fueled by frustration. As much as she looked up to past players, Murdock did not want to indulge in the results on the field in all of the traditions of years past, particularly those that showed up on the scoreboard.
In past years, it wasn’t uncommon for Highland to suffer loss due to the mercy rule. The mercy rule effectively ends the game if one of the teams is winning by 10 points at any time after half.
Many of the problems are due to the lack of depth. Highland had much fewer girls tryout, compared to other teams. That’s why this team has found creative ways to compete against the bigger name schools. Murdock focuses on instilling a feeling of team to make up for the lack of girls who tryout for the team.
“The downside is that we don’t have a big base so we have to build it up,” Murdock said. “Other schools will have 50 girls get cut from the team, and we don’t cut anyone and so we don’t have a whole lot of incoming girls for the program. I’ve liked being able to show people that they belong on the team and that we’re all equals.”
This situation has unfortunately been a common theme in a lot of Highland Athletics teams. Which can lead a lot of Highland’s teams to have subpar seasons, or easily forgotten high school careers. Although, obviously Murdock and girls soccer have not let any excuses get the better of them this season. They’ve put in the time and are seeing the fruits of their labor every game.
It’s hard to ignore the results that have been apparent throughout this season’s beginnings as they get closer and closer to capitalizing on upset victories.
“Were significantly better than we’ve been. We lost in overtime to Skyline, and we lost 7-0 to them last year, so were definitely getting better,” Murdock said.
Murdock and the team have been working toward not only hoping to avoid mercy rule losses, but to become a contender and the team to beat in a region that dominates teams from all around. — a mission that Murdock has so far been able to close in on.
Murdock will look to build on Highlands current momentum and finish strong through the rest of the season with a couple more tough region wins, leading into what will hopefully turn out to be a deep playoff run.
“I think were going to get some more wins against some of these teams in this region who’ve been historically state champions, so I think we’re going to get some more dubs,” Heath said.