Bay Girls Soccer Team Overcomes Setbacks to Get to State

When glancing at the pairings for this weekend’s WIAA girls state soccer tournament, it really shouldn’t be a surprise to see Whitefish Bay as one of the eight division 1 teams remaining.

The Blue Dukes have been a soccer powerhouse for decades, earning their 17th trip to the big dance in the 29 years the tournament has existed. In those 17 appearances, Bay has won the state title a record seven times and have been runners-up three times.

But as of late the Dukes have faded from memory a bit, as this is the first time they will be heading to Uihlein Soccer Park since 2007.

“It’s been a couple years since we’ve added (a state title),” Whitefish Bay head coach Robert Williams said. “You know how it is, people are always ‘What have you done lately,’ and for the longest (time) as a coach I always heard ‘Well, you have the easiest sectional, but you’ll never get past (Divine Savior Holy Angels).’”

Considering everything his team went through to get to state, coach Williams shouldn’t have to face comments like that for quite some time.

Having lost to DSHA the past three years in a row in sectionals, the Blue Dukes finally exorcised their demons when freshman defender Erin Corrigan scored the game’s lone goal in a 1-0 win over the Dashers on Saturday.

“I think in the past we were always intimidated by Divine Savior and this year we weren’t,” Williams said. “We knew that we could play with them, it was just a matter of having confidence and not being in awe.”

Senior goalie Sarah Platzer echoed that same mentality.

“Before the game, I feel like we all had this feeling that we were going to do it no matter what,” Platzer said.

“It just felt so great because we had this huge chance and we did it.”

Platzer has been a key piece for a team that had to rely heavily on defense this year, as the team’s two leading scorers went down with knee injuries within a week of each other.

Senior forward Lydia Kaminsky tore her anterior crucial ligament in a preseason tournament in Iowa and junior Abby Starker, the team’s leading scorer last season who just came off a torn ACL in the offseason, reinjured the same knee seven days later and suddenly Bay had limited scoring experience before conference play even kicked off.

“The three years that I’ve been here, we’ve always stressed that we’re 22, 23 deep (on the roster),” Williams said. “This year we carried 24 and we’ve needed all 24. People really stepped in.

“Talking about scoring goals, I think we’ve finally gotten off the ‘We don’t have Abby and Lydia, woe is us (mentality).’ Training sessions have been really competitive and people have really stepped up.”

Considering all they’ve overcome, you’d think the Dukes would be happy just to make it state, especially knowing they now must face one of the best teams in state and conference-rival Grafton in their semifinal matchup.

Think again.

“We played DS earlier in the season and lost, but we beat them (in the playoffs),” Platzer said. “We lost to Grafton (2-1) earlier in the year, but now it’s a different time; we have a different mindset.

“There’s no stopping now.”

The Dukes face Grafton in Thursday’s D1 state semifinal at 5 p.m. at Time Warner Cable Stadium at Uihlein Soccer Park.