On Friday, April 16, the Ranger girls soccer concluded their week with a trip to Hudsonville for another non-conference game. Unfortunately, the girls struggled against the Eagles and took their second loss of the season.

After a hard-fought win against Byron Center on Wednesday, the girls had a quick turnaround to play their second game of the week. Going into this game the girls knew that it would be a tough match-up because Hudsonville is a Division 1 team and they have a grass field. Unlike many other sports, different playing surfaces can greatly affect soccer teams. When a team that usually plays on turf is forced to play on grass, they typically struggle to play well because of how slow and inconsistent the grass is compared to the turf. This gave the girls quite the challenge but it wasn’t the only thing they had a hard time with.

“We struggled with the grass and just going into the game I don’t think we were as focused as we should have been going into the game,” said junior Ayla Thompson. Playing games so close together can make it tough for a team to stay focused especially when you have to play two very solid teams back to back. These factors caused the girls to lose to Hudsonville 5-0.

While the girls may be frustrated with the performance, they cannot dwindle on the loss for too long. The girls have three games this week which include two conference games. This means that the team needs to make a quick transition to excel this week.

“We need to keep positive and focus on one game at a time especially since EGR is next which is a pretty big game we need to be prepared for,” said Ayla. This week will be a great opportunity for the girls to add a couple of wins to their record, but in order to do so, they need to stay locked in despite the rapid-fire games they have this week.

The girls’ next game will be on Monday, April 17 at 6:45 against rivals East Grand Rapids at Ranger Stadium; this will be a very exciting conference match-up and a great opportunity for the girls to get a bounce-back win.