Emotions will be running high at 7 p.m. tonight in Adel, when the ADM/Van Meter varsity girls soccer squad takes the pitch on senior night for a critical Raccoon River Conference matchup with the Carlisle Wildcats.
Carlisle comes in a half-game behind ADM in the conference standings with a 5-1 mark in league play. The 10th-ranked Tigers can clinch the first back-to-back conference titles in program history with a win.
“It’s never been done in history, so I think it would be really great for us,” said Tigers head coach Kelsey Dolder of repeating as RRC champs. “We have a pretty challenging regional pairing this year, so I think itt’ll just really help light the fire and get us very excited for our regional pairing.”
The “challenging regional pairing” Dolder referred to is with top-ranked Ankeny, which, like ADM, received a first-round bye in Region 3. ADM will play the winner of Des-Moines Hoover and Perry at home on June 2 in the second round of the Class 2A regional playoffs.
Tuesday night, the intensity of two halves of soccer will sandwich around a halftime honoring of the Tigers’ four varsity seniors, Emily Hofmann, Jenny Wicks, Melinda Davis and Maddie Allen.
Dolder, now in her second year running the program, credited those four with helping to ease her transition to head coaching. And because she started teaching and coaching in Adel in December 2014, Dolder had little chance to get to know last year’s talented crop of seniors.
Given more time with this group of soon-to-be graduates, it will be more difficult for Dolder to let go.
“They’ve just been great leaders this year. On and off the field, on the JV squad and the varsity squad, they’re just all-around great girls and they’re really fun to get to know,” Dolder said. “I’ll be a little more sentimental this year because I got to know them a little better. I’m very excited for everything they have going on in their futures, too.”
Seniors to be honored at halftime of the junior varsity game include Laura Wills, Megan Koch, Emily Wachendorf, Amareigh Rollings and Jennifer Banks. The JV game kicks off at 5:30.