MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER PREVIEW - More goals is a goal; Raiders aim to contend in the GNC

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER PREVIEW

The Medford Raiders have felt like a team on the cusp of making a breakthrough in girls soccer the past two seasons.

In 2023, the Raiders started 0-5 but played their best soccer in the second half of the season to earn a third-place finish in the Great Northern Conference, their highest placement in 10 years.

Last year’s team was, by far, the best defensive squad Medford has had since it began varsity play in 2010, but a secondhalf scoring drought –– including four straight 1-0 losses –– put a damper on what had been a promising start.

This year’s opportunity begins with the knowledge that nine letter winners return from 2024’s team that finished 7-8-4 overall, Medford’s best overall mark since the 2019 WIAA Division 3 sectional finalists. But there are some questions that will need to be answered too with the loss of seven 2024 graduates.

“Like a lot of the teams we lost a good bunch of strong seniors from last year, but in the same breath we have a lot of good returning players,” fifth-year head coach Tanya Tessmann said Monday as the team got some work in on the Raider Field turf.

The Raiders hoped to start their season Tuesday, but a trip to defending WIAA Division 3 sectional champion Rice Lake was postponed to April 15. Medford will try again today, Thursday, with a 7 p.m. contest at Merrill, who will be joining the Great Northern Conference next year.

As the schedule currently reads, 10 of Medford’s first 11 games are on the road, a complete reversal from last year when nine of the first 11 were at home. This year’s home opener, if the schedule stands, won’t be until April 29 when Mosinee visits Raider Field.

“That’s just how it works out,” Tessmann said. “Last year we had a lot of home games. Hopefully that will be nice going into May with the majority of our games being at home when it does get busy at the end of the school year. We even have a couple of regular-season home games after school gets out.”

Tessmann oversees a varsity roster that stands at 17 players to start the year. Denice Poetzl, also in her fifth year, starts with 14 girls on the JV side. The graduation losses include first-team All-GNC goalie Sophia Brunner and the GNC’s co-Offensive Player of the Year Sierra Tessmann as well as honorable mentionees Madison Clarkson and Masaeda Krug.

But first-team All-GNC pick Talyn Peterson is back along with honorable mentionee Megan Schaefer. Those two captains are among the upperclassmen Medford will lean on for leadership this spring. Peterson’s presence will be crucial as the Raiders look to rebuild on the defensive end after they gave up just 0.7 goals per game last year. She is a four-year varsity player.

“Talyn brings the speed, knowledge, experience and skill to lead,” Tessmann said. “She continued to work hard in the off-season. She went out for hockey this year which helped her with strength and conditioning. We do want to play to the strengths of our current team, so we’re looking at possibly changing our formation up some. We are looking at possibly hoping to move Talyn up to a defensive-mid position to have her be involved more with moving the ball up and attacking.”

Senior Amelia Pernsteiner is also being looked at as potentially seeing time in a defensivemid position and junior Chloe Kapitz should lock down another defensive spot. Additional candidates for time are senior Tana Rappe, juniors Aubri Sperl and Kameron Decker and freshmen Greta Seidel and Kate Gierl. Junior Caidyn Zenner could be there too as she is being considered for a few different spots. “Amelia’s a third-year varsity player, a senior,” Tessmann said. “She’s used to playing more on the wing, but she’s a solid player that I feel comfortable trying in that defensive mid position to help our middle out. Chloe had limited playing time last year due to an ankle injury so we are looking forward to having her back and ideally keeping her healthy to help lead the defense as a thirdyear varsity player.

Freshmen Greta Seidel and Kate Gierl should add some speed back there.”

The coaches did all they could last spring to groom Peyton Boelk to take over the goal keeping position and now is the time for the sophomore. Brunner, a twotime All-GNC keeper, is now playing at Viterbo University.

“Peyton worked with Sophia Brunner in hopes of getting her used to practicing at that level and she watched Sophia as much as possible,” Tessmann said. “She is also a very dedicated player who puts in a lot of time in the off-season. Now it’s her getting used to working under the pressure. She’s starting to move more in that position and learning when to go after the ball and when to wait. We want to hear her voice out there.”

Offensively, the goal, obviously, is to score more goals. The Raiders averaged 1.9 goals per game last year, but 19 of their 36 goals came in two games against the GNC’s last-place team Antigo.

Schaefer and third-year varsity senior Shayla Radlinger are two players the Raiders believe can bring scoring punch and the team possesses some outside speed on the wings that can create opportunities as well. Radlinger is Medford’s top returning scorer. She had five goals last year. Schaefer, starting her fourth varsity season, had three goals and two assists.

“Megan has two All-GNC honorable mention honors and is looking to improve on that this year,” Tessmann said. “Last year didn’t go exactly how she had hoped, nursing an ankle injury. She’s hoping to stay healthy this year and I anticipate she will play the majority of the 80 minutes at center-mid.

“Shayla is starting her third year on varsity and I’m looking at her to lead our attack,” Tessmann added. “She really started to grow in the second half of last season. She started to be more creative and making more runs. We also started hearing her voice more in guiding other players. Both her and Megan have strong feet. Now we want to see both her and Megan put the ball in the back of the net.”

Juniors Mallory Richter and Bayley Metz are back as wings and so is senior Audrey Ruesch for a second varsity season. Pernsteiner could move up front if needed, junior Layla Petersen and sophomore Kodi Rappe are vying for time and Zenner could be a forward too.

GNC play isn’t set to start until an April 17 game at Northland Pines, who is coming off a third-place finish last year. Lakeland won the GNC title, going 9-0-1 in league play. Rhinelander was 6-1-3. Medford won penalty-kick shootouts with Rhinelander and Pines after 0-0 ties in April, but lost 1-0 games to each the second time around. Mosinee was 3-7 in the GNC. Medford split games with the Indians as each team won on the road.

Rhinelander brings back co-Offensive Player of the Year Sophie Miljevich and good young players like Ella Miljevich and Vivian Lamers. Lakeland brings back a handful of first- and second-team All-GNC picks and Pines had a solid crew of young players last year as well.

“We definitely see ourselves as conference title contenders, but we have to get into the mindset and stay there that we actually belong,” Tessmann said. “It’s hard to say. It changes year to year. We’re a new team and everyone else has a new team as well.”

The non-conference games will be important too for post-season seeding purposes as many of them are against teams in the sectional half-bracket, including Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia, Ashland, Merrill and Waupaca.

“We had so many close games last year,” Tessmann said. “We won a couple 1-0. but we lost enough 1-0 also. This year we want to be on the winning side of those games if we can.”

Medford’s new goalie Peyton Boelk makes a stop during Monday’s practice. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS