The Varsity Soccer team is working with new coach Ted Vetterlein to get ready for the season after its move up to the Mission League. Vetterlein hopes that Marlborough’s new soccer field will allow the team to spend more time practicing and to benefit from more fan support. The team played one home game against Santa Monica in which they tied 2-2, and one away game against Marymount in which they won 4-2.

As a result of last year’s win-loss record, the team moved up to the Mission League, which is more competitive than last year’s Sunshine league.  Despite the more competitive schedule, Vetterlein says he hopes the team’s strong lineup of players will be able to finish in the top of their league this season.

“We have a very talented team this year with a lot of returning players and a few, who have moved up from last year’s JV team,” Vetterlein said.

The new field on campus will also free up time that last year had to be used to travel to and from the practice facility.  Vetterlein explains that last year there was a lot of time wasted on the commute that could have been better used for training.

“I think the more training time the team has the better suited they will be for on field adversities and challenges that get throw at them throughout the season. I believe that hard work in training will always increase the team’s success,” Vetterlein said.

Along with hopes for success in the new challenging league, the coach is excited that the school is going to be able to play home games because of the new field.

“The most exciting thing about the soccer team this year is that we will be playing some of our home games on campus at Booth Field. Booth Field is an amazing venue for spectators to come out and cheer on the Varsity Mustang Girls Soccer team,” Vetterlein said.

After the first home game, returning member Isabel Monroy ’17 said playing in front of the Marlborough crowd was exciting.

“I vividly remember us scoring and then the entire audience, which was a pretty substantial number of people, stood up and started cheering! It was so exciting because even though at Occidental we had our parents to cheer us on, it’s a completely different experience when your friends and teachers are cheering too,” Monroy said.