Aspen girls soccer kicks off playoffs
The Aspen Times
Leah Moriarty / Special to The Aspen Times |
The Aspen High School girls soccer team will kick off the Class 3A state playoffs Friday in Broomfield.
The Skiers (12-3-0) will take on No. 20 seed St. Mary’s of Colorado Springs (10-5-0) at 4 p.m. Friday at Jefferson Academy in Broomfield.
As the No. 4 overall seed, Jefferson Academy is the host site for the first two rounds of the state tournament. Jefferson Academy (11-4-0) will play the winner of the Aspen-St. Mary’s match at 10 a.m. Saturday in Broomfield in the second round.
The other three teams in Aspen’s playoff quadrant are led by host Liberty Common High School in Fort Collins, the No. 5 overall seed.
No. 21 St. Mary’s Academy of Englewood will play No. 12 Frontier Academy of Greeley in the first-round game at Liberty Common.
Coal Ridge, the winner of the Western Slope League, drew a No. 6 seed and a first-round bye in the state 3A soccer bracket.
No. 11 Lutheran will play No. 22 Pagosa Springs in the first-round match at No. 6 Coal Ridge, located west of New Castle.
The overall No. 1 seed in 3A girls soccer is Kent Denver (12-1-1). Colorado Academy (11-3-0) is the No. 2 seed. The Academy of Westminster (14-0-1)is No. 3.
The Aspen girls will head into the playoffs with nine shutouts to their credit. They’ve won nine of the last 10 games with their only loss coming to No. 6 seed Coal Ridge. St. Mary’s of Colorado Springs also has nine shutouts this season. They’ve won four in a row.
In other prep playoff action today, the history-making Aspen High School girls lacrosse team (11-5) will play at No. 2 seed Mullen at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Aspen girls lax team became the first Mountain League girls team to advance to the second round of the Class 4A/5A state playoffs.
The Skiers scored a dramatic 11-10 victory over visiting Pine Creek on Wednesday in Aspen with Caroline Moriarty scoring the game-winning goal with 4 seconds to play.
Teammate Mackenzie Miller had six goals in the win that sent the Skiers into the second round.
Mullen is 12-3 as the second seed in the playoffs. The Mustangs feature two of the premier scorers in Colorado girls lacrosse.
Ali Vanek has a total of 49 goals and 46 assists in 15 games this season. Teammate Payton Gabriel has 48 goals and 29 assists.
