Junior Alyssa Pipes sets the ball on the penalty mark. Breathing through her nerves, she steps back and begins her run up to the ball. The stadium falls quiet as the ball leaves her foot and travels through the air. 

The ball strikes the back of the net.

The team has just won the Ranger Classic.

“I was confident in my ability to take [the kick],” Pipes said. “But I was still very nervous going into it with everyone watching me.”

The Ranger Classic is a girls’ soccer tournament the school hosts annually. They competed in three games spanning from Jan. 4-6.

“We’ve had The Ranger Classic for 23 years now,” head coach Jason Adkins said. “It’s eight varsity teams [in] a bracket system. Usually, we come out with a championship at the end.”

This year was no different.

The tournament opened with a match against Victoria West, junior Addie Schultz scored two goals and sophomore Addie Briscoe scored one. Assists came from senior captain Jordan Todd and senior Alex Smithwick.

“Addie Schultz came in and played in the middle for us and did really well,” Adkins said. “Our senior leadership of Alex Smithwick and Kaela Stevens on the outside and Jordan Todd in the middle was really big.”

With one win under their belt, the team moved on to game two where it got a shutout against Austin Bowie. Junior Raelyn Hinojosa scored two goals while senior Callaghan McGuire scored one. 

After two wins, the team moved on to the final where they played Brennan. With the game scoreless after the 90 minutes of regulation, the team was headed to penalty kicks. 

“The toughest moment of the tournament was playing Brennan in our last game,” senior captain Kaela Stevens said. “We struggled to play our game instead of settling for their level of play and in turn, we had to win the game through penalty kicks.” 

The team was tied 4-4 on penalties, and Pipes was up to take the last one. 

“When we went into PK’s, everyone was so nervous,” Pipes said. “But we were all confident that we would win and pull the championship medal off.”

And that’s exactly what they did. 

“I felt a sense of joy and I was relieved that we won,” Pipes said. “Everyone was so ecstatic that we won, and we all ran to each other screaming and jumping.”