The MSMS Blue Waves faced off against the St. Andrew’s Saints on Friday, Nov. 15, to begin district play. Both the boys and girls teams lost their respective matches. The boys fell to a 0-3 record and the girls to 1-2-1 in overall play.

The girls match was a challenging 7-0 loss, which ended under mercy rule at 75 minutes. Despite the high score, Emily Berry accumulated 17 saves over the course of the match.

Although the team lost, Chuck Yarborough, the head coach of the Lady Waves team, did not take their performance as a failure.

“I’m very pleased with the girls’ willingness to grow and develop even during such a challenging match,” he said. “St. Andrew’s is an incredibly good team. They beat 6A powerhouse Tupelo High School 4-2 the day after we played. For us to have stayed in the match for nearly 80 minutes really says something.”

Berry also sees development in the girl’s team.

“We worked together more the second half. We also played more as a team, and it showed us not only our weaknesses but also our strengths. We are gradually improving every practice and it shows in every match,” Berry said.

On the boys’ side, St. Andrew’s won 8-1, also in a match shortened by the mercy rule. MSMS scored the first goal of the match and maintained a 1-0 lead for 30 minutes before losing momentum, allowing the Saints to regain control of the match.

Junior Cameron Wright scored the lone goal of the game. Despite the tough loss, he saw continued development from recent matches.

“There was a lot of improvement,” Wright said. “For weeks now our coach has had film sessions for us to take notes about our strategy plans. In that first 30 minutes, everyone saw the fruits of that labor. We were energized and full of intensity. In the first half, we had St. Andrew’s on their toes.”

Tim Wood, head coach of the boys team, hopes to continue finding the best way to lead his team.

“I think we came out incredibly strong in terms of how organized we were and how hard we worked,” Wood said. “I think in the second half our fitness came into play a little bit, and there were some adjustments that I made that didn’t work out for us, so I need to do a better job and learn from those mistakes. But overall, the score line didn’t show how much we really were in that game, and how much we dominated them and came at them in the first half, so I was really pleased with us doing our jobs, and we’ll keep improving in terms of organization and fitness.”

MSMS tackled the West Point Green Waves on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The Blue Waves will next face the Philadelphia Tornadoes on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Columbus Soccerplex. Girls will kick off at 5:30 p.m., boys at 7:00 p.m.