The Garretson Blue Dragon girls soccer team is coming off a 3-7-2 record in the 2020 season, a season that saw the team just miss qualifying for the playoffs.
The 2021 squad has five seniors that will be leading the team, four of them from Dell Rapids. This year’s seniors are Madison Ljunggren, Tori Lodmell, Paige Sterud, Miriam Pickard, and Oliviyah Thornton. Head coach Amber Williamson said that her seniors will be surrounded by underclassmen with plenty of varsity experience including juniors Reagan Altman, Morgan Damman, Kayla Genzlinger and Jenna VanHolland. Williamson also expects Jordyn Williams, Joely Sterud, and Kylie Christensen to be big contributors this season as well.
“Despite our record last year, we were within a goal of turning many of those losses into wins. This year we are focused on finding more ways to put the ball in the back of the net and coming out on the other side of those close games,” Williamson said.
The Blue Dragons have already had three matches to start the 2021 season. Garretson hosted Vermillion on Friday, August 13th and fell by a score of 3-0. Vermillion got a goal in the first half and then added two more in the second half for the win. The Blue Dragons then made the long trip north to Groton on Saturday, August 14th. Groton Area got a second-half goal, the only goal of the game, for a 1-0 victory.
Garretson got into the win column on Tuesday, August 17th in a match at Huron. The Blue Dragons found the back of the net three times in the first half and scored two more times in the second half for a big 5-0 victory over the Huron Tigers.
The Blue Dragons (1-2-0) will travel to Tea to play the Titans on Saturday, August 21st.