Park girls' soccer is off to a great start.”

Stacy Paleen, co-head girls' soccer coach

Park girls' soccer coaches welcome back several top players this fall, including leading scorer Kylee Mickle and other veterans, and are optimistic for the season.

“Park girls' soccer is off to a great start,” said Stacy Paleen, co-head girls' soccer coach.

Park went 6-10-2 last season but were just 2-6-1 in the rugged Suburban East Conference. The Wolfpack scored a 4-2 win over Bloomington Jefferson in the Section 3 quarterfinals, then dropped a 4-0 decision to host Rosemount in the section semifinals. That section win will carry over to be motivation this fall.

Top returning players for the Wolfpack include seniors Nickle, Téa Alvarenga and Liya Bekele.

“We are looking at those players to contribute a lot of minutes to our program and hopefully score goals too,” said Paleen.

Goalkeeper this season will be sophomore Ainsley Lucas who served as the junior varsity keeper and the varsity backup last season. “She is looking really strong already making several great saves against East Ridge in our scrimmage this weekend,” said Paleen.

“We have several newcomers over all grade levels who bring speed and great field awareness,” the Park coach continued. “We are excited about them and what they bring to the varsity level. We are hoping to finish in the top half of the conference this year and continue to build on our section finish from last season making it to the semifinals for the first time in 11 seasons.”

The numbers are also looking good for the Wolfpack this season.

“One thing we are particularly proud of in our program is that we have 80 girls registered and are able to field four solid squads. It seems that across the state, schools are having trouble fielding three squads, let alone four.”