Louisville `made it count' with CIF regional title
Lions leaned on each other, alumnae in historic season
The Louisville girls soccer team's mantra for this season was “make it count.” Each repetition in practice, goal and win was going to build toward the team's goals of winning a league, CIF Southern Section and CIF State regional championship.
The Lions achieved all of those things while realizing their success is bigger than themselves and they laid the foundation for future Louisville teams.
“There are so many amazing women who have played before you in this program,” Louisville head coach Ariana Martinez told her team, “and you owe it to them to make this program even better than you found it.”
Louisville (25-3) won the program's first regional championship when it beat Arroyo Grande 1-0 on March 2 in the CIF State SoCal Division IV final.
The Lions were trying to achieve something for themselves but were also inspired by program alumnae along the way.
Martinez reached out to former Louisville soccer players during the playoffs, who in turn wrote letters of support to the current team. They emphasized a culture of sisterhood, especially as Louisville — a school of 300 students — took on schools up to triple its size throughout the postseason run.
“It took some of the pressure off before the game,” Martinez said. “These moments of playoffs can feel so pressurized in terms of big shoes to fill, and I think hearing the support of other girls and other women who have been before you was incredible.”
The Lions also won their first CIF-SS title since 2001 when Miye Kodama and Emma Castro each scored to lift Louisville past Monrovia 2-0 in the Division 4 final. Kylie Morris was credited with an assist for both goals.
In the regional playoffs, the team went on to beat La Jolla Country Day 5-0 and Monrovia 1-0 to reach the finals.
Louisville recorded 13 shutouts across 28 games this season, thanks in part to goalkeeper Emily Brown. She saved five penalty kicks during the Lions' playoff run, including one against Arroyo Granade in the regional championship game.
“I could see Emily make a save and then all of our defenders, all of our teammates, girls on the bench, girls on the field, everyone is just running up to her and giving her the congratulations,” Martinez said, “but at the same time, I think it mobilized us to be like, `OK, we're going to make the next save, we're going to make the tackle because she's done it, too.'”
While Brown was the last line of defense, Kodama took charge on offense and scored 41 goals throughout the season. She scored the winning goal in the regional championships and either scored or assisted in every game this season, all while playing on the school's CIF-SS championship-winning girls basketball team at the same time.
“I have visions of Miye throughout the season,” Martinez said. “She always made sure to show up and she was 100% for the team, and she would always shine in those moments when she needed to. But there were so many times where she would pour into other girls or uplift other girls or give the team the boost that we needed.”
Kodama and Brown are two of seven seniors who will graduate at the end of this school year. They and their teammates have stayed true to the team's mantra and made this season count, all while adding to the next chapter of Louisville girls soccer in their own way.
“We all collectively just let everyone be who they are,” Martinez said. “The girls were able to bring the best parts of themselves to the team and that's what made our team so strong.”