Peebles senior Lydia Maddox chases a ball down the sideline during the Lady Indians’ district semifinal loss to Fairfield on October 22. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

Peebles senior Lydia Maddox chases a ball down the sideline during the Lady Indians’ district semifinal loss to Fairfield on October 22. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

<p>In the final soccer game of her high school career, Peebles senior Lainee Barr looks to control the ball as the Lady Indians fell 5-0 to Fairfield in the Division V district tournament. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

In the final soccer game of her high school career, Peebles senior Lainee Barr looks to control the ball as the Lady Indians fell 5-0 to Fairfield in the Division V district tournament. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

After opening the postseason with a 3-2 win over Ripley in the Division V quarterfinals, which would have been in past seasons a sectional championship, Coach Kierra Wagner and the Peebles Lady Indians headed for the turf at Waverly’s Raidiger Field on October 22 to compete in the district semifinals. As so often happens in Southeast District tournament play, members of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference are matched up against each other and that was the case for the Lady Indians as they faced off in the semis with the Fairfield Lady Lions.

Riding the emotion of that first-round win, the Peebles girls didn’t fare quite as well in their semifinal battle as the Lady Lions scored twice in the first half and then added three more goals in the second half to claim the 5-0 victory and advance in tournament play.

“We did well the first half, really trying to keep them off our goal, so 2-0 at halftime we were okay with,” said Coach Wagner. “We just got exhausted and outnumbered at the end. Fairfield is a team we lost like 11-0 to at the beginning of the season so to stay within two or three most of the game was a positive for us. This year we had our sights set on improvement, we had a new goalie, who had never been goalie before and some new players come up to help us with our numbers a bit. I think people may look at our season stats and record and think there’s no way we improved, but every coach we have played has mentioned how much of a difference they’ve seen in the last two years. I think people forget a lot of my girls are fresh to soccer in general (like started playing two years ago) so to win some games and tie some key matches like North Adams is a great accomplishment for us. Next year we are hoping to get more people up to strengthen our numbers and hopefully just keep improving to a winning record.”

For a pair of Peebles seniors, Lainee Barr and Lydia Maddox, the loss to Fairfield was the final game of their high school careers.

“My seniors, I couldn’t have asked more from,” Wagner continued. “Lydia Maddox decided to play for us this year as a senior and really stepped up and filled many positions we needed and we will notice a big difference with her being gone. She really wasn’t looking forward to playing if you ask her, but she has said this made her wish she played for all her high school years and she enjoyed it so much, which is a great thing to hear. Lainee Barr was our three-year senior (because we didn’t have a program her freshman year) and really helped us get this program back together by helping me recruit friends and show them we could start soccer back up. She has been a key player on our field for the last three years and has helped to improve our entire team, not just herself. She didn’t think coming into soccer as a sophomore that it would make much of an imprint on her high school career but said it slowly became her favorite sport and she was so glad to be a part of our team. They are both kids you wish you could just have another year with, and a lot of our kids really looked up to our seniors we had and will miss them a lot.”

The Lady Indians finished 5-10-1 overall and will return their two leading goal scorers in juniors Brian Brown and Aiva Brumley. Junior Hylae Shields will be back as the top goalkeeper, totaling 138 saves for the season.