2020 Spring Preview: Liberty Girls Soccer

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MSHSAA announced on Monday, Mar. 16 that they would not be cancelling spring sports due to the Coronavirus. There will be delays to the start of the season and you can read the full MSHSAA release on spring sports by clicking here. Many area schools have called off classes and extracurricular activities through at least Apr. 3 and will reassess at that time. We will continue to post our spring previews. Please note that this preview was written before delays for the spring season were announced.


By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

The Mountain View-Birch Tree Liberty Lady Eagles’ soccer team came up short in their bid for a third-straight district championship last season, and coach Shelly Renegar said her team feels like it must prove itself.

“This may sound crazy, but I think our biggest strength this year will be that we want to prove ourselves,” Renegar said. “Every player wanted the district win last year and they’ll want to prove that we’re still a threat even though we graduated nine players last year.

“Even though we didn’t come out with the 2019 district win, we did a lot of great things. We tied with the previous highest-record for wins (2015) for the Liberty soccer program with 15 wins. We competed with a lot of top-level teams we hadn’t seen before like Sikeston, Waynesville and Father Tolten.”

The Lady Eagles finished 15-6-1 overall and fell 1-0 to New Covenant Academy in the Class 1 District 6 title game. On the season, MV-BT Liberty totaled 65 goals and allowed just 36.

The losses to graduation include two highly decorated players who have gone on to play college soccer – Amanda Mantel and Abigail Reese.

Mantel, who scored 45 goals and had 9 assists, ended her career with 117 goals (the second-highest in program history) and 18 assists. She was named first-team all-state and all-district, and was the Class 1 Region 3 Co-Offensive Player of the Year. She currently is playing as an outside flank for Central Methodist University in Fayette.

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“Amanda has definitely left some huge shoes to fill, on and off the field,” Renegar said. “Her passion and dedication to the sport and her team was indescribable.”

Reese earned first-team all-state, all-region and all-district honors, who is playing outside defender for Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Ark., and received the 2019 Freshman Award.

“Abigail really blossomed her senior year and became a defensive leader on the field,” Renegar said. “She has also left a huge role to be filled on the opposite end of the field. Her personality and precision passing will be missed.”

The other losses include: Tehya Pierce (defender, second-team all-district), Sydney Wilson (flank, second-team all-district), Guadalupe Salinas, Christian Radford, and foreign exchange players Lika Jalaghonia and Amelia Avila.

Renegar returns a number of upperclassmen and a sophomore who were key to the team’s success last year.

• Amber Collins, senior, forward – Scored 10 goals; all-district second-team. “She has a lot of college recruits watching her. I expect her to lead on the offensive end and be able to create goal scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates.”
• Kennedy Cooley, senior, midfielder – “She’s our long-legged outside-mid that perfected her passing skills last year and even found the back of the net once. I expect her to do that and more this season.”
• Marie McClellan, junior, defender – “Marie will be returning for her second year playing soccer ever. She came in with intensity like no other new player last year. She scored a couple goals, was assigned to stop key opponent players, and even ended up playing in the goal box a few times. Her coachability took her a long way last year and I expect great things out of her wherever she ends up on the field.”
• Tru Daniels, sophomore – “Tru also made a huge impact last year. She proved that she can perform well on the offensive end early in the season, but ended up spending a lot of time on the defensive end due to team injuries.”
• Marley Kyle, junior – “I think of Marley as my quiet talent. She always works hard, never complains, and always performs well in any position. I say quiet because I would often go back and watch game film and realize Marley was a huge part of our successes and deserves a lot more praise than she ever gets. I expect her to do nothing less this year.

The Lady Eagles also will have seniors Kymmi Miller and Timberly Richison returning after their first year in the game.

Lost for the season is sophomore goalkeeper Abby Woolsey, who tore her ACL. The all-district second-team honoree had 191 of 253 total keeper stops. She set a record with 8 solo shutouts, even though she played in only 18 games because of an early season injury.

Juniors Mia Wagner, an all-state honorable mention, all-region and all-district first-team selection, and Samantha Herold, all-district first team, also will not be playing this year.

Renegar will be looking to newcomers Isobel Tripp, Litzy Lopez, Makayla Wilson, and a few other athletic players coming out to contribute this season.

MV-BT Liberty opens play in the Lebanon Tournament on March 20-21.

“Being from a small town that isn’t close to any big cities, it’s really hard to find schools that are willing to travel to play with us,” Renegar said. “Other than West Plains, Springfield teams and Poplar Bluff are the closest to us. I don’t mind it though, I like that it prepares us for more competition.”

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