Jaguars hungry after sub-par season

By JEREMY TEPPER

For the MV Independent

If the Thomas Jefferson girls soccer team learned one thing from last season, it’s that things don’t always go quite as planned.

Fresh off a 16-4 season and WPIAL quarterfinal appearance in Jason Vozar’s first year as the Jaguars’ coach, Thomas Jefferson expected much of the same last season. That was far from the case, as the Jaguars finished 8-11 and bowed out in the first round of the playoffs to Ambridge.

The team, as it turns out, wasn’t as close as it needed to be. The chemistry, which is all too important in soccer, wasn’t quite there. Since that loss to Ambridge, Vozar has preached building up the culture of the team.

“We had a bumpy year last year and I (said) ‘that’s gotta change, and this has to be a family.’ And I think we’ve started to embody that. We’re not just a team, we’re a family,” said senior midfielder Dalaney Ranallo. “There’s a big change in culture. Everybody wants to be here and wants to be working hard because we know how it felt to come up barely short. I think that’s a big motivator for us.”

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