On a muggy Thursday afternoon, May 12, with an early start time to avoid forecasted late thunderstorms, the Lady Wolverines took the field at Polk County High School and earned a first-round victory in the state 2A soccer playoffs, downing visiting Maiden by a score of 4-2.

The Lady Wolverines drew first blood at 30:22 in the first half, as Richelle Sciuva passed to Polk senior striker Brittany Phipps in the left side of the box. Phipps slipped past the Maiden defender and fired the ball to the far post to give Polk the 1-0 lead.
Less than four minutes later, after a punt from Polk goal minder Donna Every bounced over a Maiden defender, it was Sciuva’s turn as the fleet-footed junior forward pressured the last defender, won the ball, and dribbled in for the score at 26:34. Every earned the assist as Polk jumped to a 2-0 lead.
With just over a minute left in the first half, senior Peyton Habenicht served a long pass forward to Phipps, who eluded the last defender and tapped the ball past Maiden goalie Christina Helms to record her second goal of the day, giving Polk the 3-0 lead at the end of the half.
Down but not out, Maiden responded early in the second half, as freshman Rachel Pritchard scored on an assist by Allison Maynard to close the gap to two goals.
Any thoughts the Lady Blue Devils might have entertained about a late comeback were quashed, however, as Habenicht served a corner kick to Phipps, who headed the ball to the back post to notch the hat trick and make it 4-1 Polk.
Freshman stopper Katie Foster added the final score for Maiden on a free kick, but it was too little, too late, as Polk eliminated the Lady Blue Devils from the playoffs with a 4-2 victory.
Asked if the match had gone as they had expected, seniors Kailey Russell and Phipps were both less than enthusiastic.
“We didn’t play to our potential,” noted Russell.
Phipps agreed with her teammate.
“I think we could have done better,” said Phipps, adding, “I think that we were ‘settling.’”
Both ladies felt that their team, with a 3-0 lead going into halftime, had eased off the throttle too early and allowed their opponents back into the game, a sentiment echoed by head coach Lennox Charles.
“We didn’t plan starting off the second half giving up an early goal,” said Charles, who went on to explain the importance of scoring first as play resumed. “If we had scored first, (Maiden) would have had a lot less energy and would not have worked nearly as hard to come back.”
With the victory, Polk advances to the second round to face Brevard.